As a cable TV lineman and admitted workaholic, Dillon Howard often spent 12-hour days climbing telephone poles, seemingly impervious to temperature extremes. On his off-days, the motocross enthusiast liked to race across rough terrain at breakneck speeds. To call him a rugged outdoorsman would be an understatement. Then one night in mid-February, while at home…
Joe Shelton, 85, knew he had to do something when his sleep started being interrupted at least three times every night by the pressure to urinate. He would get out of bed, stumble to the bathroom, then wait for his bladder to empty — but often nothing would come out except a dribble. So he’d…
More than 20 years after his initial myeloma diagnosis, David Sutton continues to express his gratitude for the care he’s received at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and display an unwavering desire to help those in a similar situation. “I have greatly benefited from the…
Susan Johnson, 62, of North Little Rock, has fought sickle cell disease her entire life. She was first diagnosed decades ago, before early screenings were common and when care was still evolving. So to make it to this point in her life as a sickle cell patient, Johnson said, is remarkable. “My brother didn’t see…
The view from the 1,011-foot summit of Pinnacle Mountain is spectacular, and Gary Evans does his best to get there as often as he can. But after a lung cancer diagnosis in January 2023, Evans wasn’t sure he would get to the top of his favorite mountain ever again.
As Dewey Hickey took apart and reassembled a bait casting reel using an experimental prosthetic hand system, he marveled at the revolutionary technology that made it possible. “It amazes me,” said Hickey, who in January 2023 became the first Arkansan and only the second person in the world to receive the device, which restored his…
A 45-foot van in the parking lot of your child’s elementary school might seem an unlikely location for one of the most important medical exams of your life. It was ideal for Lyndee Braley. The busy mother of three from tiny Genoa, Arkansas, population 972, had just turned 40 when she saw a notice on…
Briana Pringle, 22, of Little Rock, is pretty busy these days, and that’s a good thing. The Helena-West Helena native studies at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) during the week and works on weekends. She barely has time to visit her family back home. Sickle cell disease is an unwelcome part of…
Memphis OB-GYN Lea Bannister was so excited about buying a fancy new carbon-fiber bicycle that the first time she rode it, she didn’t stop pedaling for 25 miles. It was the first time she had ridden a bike in several years, however, and at age 61, she was prone to osteoarthritis. She had already undergone…
Greenwood police officer John Michael O’Mara has been dealing with hearing loss since childhood. For years, he tried all manner of traditional hearing aids, but he just didn’t like the way they performed. “I was stubborn and refused to wear hearing aids,” O’Mara said. “I didn’t like the way that it sounded like a 1960s…
Tom and Deb Heau have come a long way together. “I couldn’t have made it without Deb, she’s the guardian angel,” said Tom Heau, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018. Deb Heau describes the day they found out about her husband’s illness. “It was March 1, 2018. Tom came home and said, ‘I…
Jolee Camp was a thriving 15-year-old who dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and enjoyed hunting, fishing and working on her family’s farm in Lonoke when she was suddenly disabled by unexplained low back pain. “She spent her senior year in a wheelchair,” said her mother, B.J. Camp, who took her daughter from doctor to…