Posts by Lyric Marinac

As a medical technologist with 36 years of experience, Dan Starck understood too well how serious his 29-year-old son Justin’s cancer diagnosis was. “It was incurable from day one,” Dan said. The initial diagnosis gave him just two years. From the time he was diagnosed, Justin and his family fought back with chemotherapy and multiple…

Hurricane Katrina nearly took away everything that mattered to Lillie McClain, a patient care technician in Louisiana. The storm toppled three large trees onto Lillie’s home, demolishing it. Her two older girls, Kayla and Jada, were covered with glass, but unhurt. Courtney, then just 16months old, was gasping for breath. “I knew time was limited,”…

Meet the Mitchell family. Becky, an office manager based in Texas, recently received Hope Fund assistance, and sent in this touching note about the difference it made in her family’s life. We wanted to share it with all of you. Thank you for supporting our HCA Healthcare colleagues like Becky through your support of the…

The HCA Healthcare Hope Fund receives requests for assistance from our colleagues in need all year long, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began the number of incoming applications tripled. Over the last 2 months more than $1.3 million in critical COVID-related assistance has been provided to help our colleagues and another $1.2 million to families…

At some point in our lives, we all experience the pain of losing a loved one. We can relate to and support one another during these trying times. But no one ever expects to lose a child who you have loved and raised. This is what happened to Shirley Hagen, a radiology coordinator at West…

At 35 years old, Colorado-based nurse Caroline Mrlik Ames got married, travelled for her honeymoon, and bought a house. There was so much excitement and everything was falling into place. Then just six months later, she was totally blindsided with a cancer diagnosis that would change everything All of a sudden, her life was filled…

Traci Patton is a Licensed Master Social Worker based in Texas. She has a husband, six children, two dogs and a cat. Last year, Traci started having occasional days where she felt very tired. Her father encouraged her to visit her doctor and request medical tests to determine the cause of her fatigue. All of…

Gloria Thompson’s husband, Ernest, was told in his youth he would not live past the age of eighteen due to his sickle cell anemia. Which is why, though losing him at the age of 58 was incredibly difficult, she feels grateful to have enjoyed so many happy years with him. They had three children –…

As a social worker at the Women’s Hospital of Texas, Arianne Rumley provides support to women and new mothers coping with very difficult situations such as loss, serious illness, abuse and even domestic violence. She is highly skilled in providing care to patients going through a variety of life events, but everything changed when she…