Marian and Russell Bevis

“He’s come a long way from the time he entered the Emergency Center until he got out of Outpatient Rehab,” says Marian Bevis of her husband of 57 years, Russell.

In May of 2005, as they were preparing to celebrate Mother’s Day, with little warning, Russell collapsed in the kitchen and went into cardiac arrest. Marian immediately called 911. EMS personnel responded quickly, performed lifesaving measures and rushed him to the Bixler Emergency Center at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.

Doctors at TMH placed two stents in his heart. Russell then suffered a massive stroke. He spent his first week of recovery in the Vogter Neurological Intensive Care Unit where members of the TMH Stroke Team monitored his progress. Russell then moved to 4-North, the neurology unit, for an additional week. Upon discharge from the hospital, he spent two months in the Tallahassee Memorial Rehabilitation Center.

Russell has no memory of the two weeks he spent in the hospital, but recalls that once he moved to the Rehabilitation Center the staff kept him busy, working constantly in the gym and with physical and speech therapists. He says he even asked his occupational therapist for “extra credit assignments.” Marian feels like it is this type of motivation that has helped her husband recover. “He’s a very strong person,” she says. “He could do anything a young man could do until that one day. I am sure it helped in his recovery that he is so determined. We’ve been married 57 years and I haven’t won an argument yet!”

The Bevis family is quick to commend TMH and its colleagues for the compassionate care they received during the last year. “The staff at TMH became like part of our family,” says granddaughter Jennifer Walker. “Especially when our family was going through this with Papaw and we were always there, wanting more information. They were all so patient and nice — they still hug his neck when he goes back there.”