Chuck Speiker
When Chuck Speiker checked in at the Lakeville Clinic, something didn’t check out.
Chuck had triple-bypass surgery in 2017. Since then, he gets his blood checked every few weeks at the Lakeville Clinic. Amy Klug is usually there to greet him.
But on this morning, Chuck wasn’t acting like himself. “Amy noticed right away,” Chuck recalls. “She had me sit down, then came out from behind the desk and asked me a few questions.”
After his appointment, Chuck was disoriented. “I remember walking towards the lobby, and the next thing I remember I was being put on a gurney into the ambulance. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ and the paramedic said, ‘You’re having a stroke.’”
NH+C’s paramedics took Chuck directly to M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital to get the care he needed right away. (Northfield Hospital is a Level Three Acute Stroke Ready Hospital, working with other hospitals across the region to provide patients a full range of stroke care.)
“Amy told me later I was slurring my words, that I told someone I went through a red light to get to the clinic,” Chuck recalls. “She said I just wasn’t acting like the Chuck Speiker she knows.
“I just thank God that Amy noticed something was wrong,” Chuck says. “It could have been much worse. What if I had gotten back into my truck to drive home?” (Chuck still isn’t driving again yet: “I’m nervous about it.”)
After Chuck came home from the hospital, his primary care provider, Sarah Lybarger, PA-C contacted Chuck’s cardiologist at Mayo Clinic. Together, they recommended a neurology consult for Chuck.
“I really appreciate that Sarah made the effort to talk with my cardiologist,” Chuck says. “It gives a person my age with my medical history a little confidence in the medical system.”
He’s glad to have Amy on his team, too.
“Me and Amy have a pretty good relationship,” Chuck says. “When you go into the clinic every 2 to 3 weeks, you get to know people pretty well.
“When you get to be my age, your social life is making doctor appointments. And during the pandemic, that got scary for a while,” Chuck says. “The Lakeville Clinic does an extraordinary job of taking precautions, a wonderful job under the circumstances. People like Amy make it a little more enjoyable.”
And safer, too.