Volunteering at Silver Cross No Sweat for Former Mokena Official After Successful Surgery

Even though he’s mostly a homebody these days, Mike Everett has been bumping into a lot of people he knows.

“Some people know me from the village, I saw a teacher I knew from when I was on the school board, and I even met a former grammar school classmate,” Everett said.

That can happen when you work as a volunteer in the Procedural Care Unit (PCU) at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. And when you’ve served as a Mokena Village Trustee, Village President and School Board member.

One of his favorite encounters was shortly after he started working as a volunteer. The PCU is near the Interventional Radiology Unit, where he spent five days the year before following life-saving surgery to remove multiple blood clots in his lungs.

He was able to reunite with some nurses from the surgical team, and it was a very emotional reunion for him … and them.

‘Didn’t Think I Would Make It’

Everett’s symptoms began in June 2022, when he felt his heart racing, and he could barely breathe. Lying down only made it worse.

By that Wednesday evening, he was in severe distress.

“I told Karen, ‘Maybe I can rest tonight, and we can go to Silver Cross in the morning.’ If I had, I wouldn’t have been alive the next morning.”

Mokena Fire Protection EMTs rushed him to the Silver Cross Emergency Department, where tests showed he had multiple pulmonary embolisms – more commonly known as blood clots in the lung. Interventional Radiologist Dr. William Bremer recommended an immediate procedure to remove them.

“I found out later from one of the team they didn’t expect me to survive the surgery. I was in that bad of shape,” he explained.

Of course, he survived, and when the team learned the next day, July 1, 2022, was his 70^th birthday, they gave him a balloon and a very special birthday card, with a photo of the debris from his lungs fashioned into the number 70.

Emotional Anniversary

“Ironically, I started my first shift as a volunteer at Silver Cross on the one-year anniversary of my surgery. When I visited the Interventional Radiology Unit, I brought the card with me. The nurses remembered me and some starting tearing up,” he said. “They told me, ‘We made this card for us. You were in bad shape, and we wanted to give you a little extra push for a good recovery.’”

Everett also saw Dr. Bremer that day and thanked him again for his amazing work, especially after learning three friends of similar ages died from blood clots after his surgery.

“And like mine, theirs seemed to come out of nowhere,”

While accompanying his wife to her own appointment at Silver Cross, he ran in to Leslie Newbon, Community Relations and Marketing Manager, who suggested he talk to Laura Valencik, Director of Guest and Volunteer Services, about volunteering.

The PCU seemed like a good fit, and Everett said they needed volunteers there. So, now he works 8 a.m. to noon, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, escorting visitors from check-in to their rooms.

“I got 15,000 steps in the other day; this is good exercise.”

And a good chance to keep up connections.

“Every day, I think, ‘Gee, who will I meet today?’”

To learn more about volunteering at Silver Cross, visit silvercross.org.