Grande Ronde Hospital | Life & Health | Summer 2019

‘ D R . WOODWORT H SAV E D MY L I F E ’ Second chances The ranch in Union has been in Lezlie Posey’s family for five generations. Lezlie gestures across fields of baled hay toward the hills, where the second story of the original farmhouse peeks through the trees. Family still lives in that house. Here at the newer house, which the family uses as a gathering place, she has spent the day working in the yard. Everything is neat as a pin. “I love it here—I spend as much time out here as I can,” she says. It is evening now, and Lezlie has one more task before heading back home—bottle feeding an orphaned heifer she calls Teeny. “We never sell the ones we name,” she says, smiling down at Teeny, whose eyes are half closed in milk-slurping bliss. It is a perfect, country-summer evening. A gift. Does Lezlie think about second chances and how close she came to dying? “Yes,” she says. “All the time.” In early March 2019, Lezlie was finishing up her shift at work when she suddenly did not feel well. She told a co-worker she thought she had indigestion, and asked if they would close up so she could run a quick errand before she headed home. By the time she had driven to the store, Lezlie was extremely uncomfortable. At the checkout, she asked the clerk if they had antacids, and would she mind getting them for her. “I even had to have her help me open them. I never have heartburn or stomach issues—ever. So I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I thought it must be my gut,” Lezlie recalls. SUMMER 2019 —Continued on page 2 “I still didn’t fully understand what had happened and how rare it was. But I did know that if it wasn’t for Dr. Woodworth, I wouldn’t be here.” Lezlie Posey has a renewed appreciation for the simple things in life—like feeding Teeny—after a lifesaving emergency surgery.