Robin Kennedy, Wheeler Heart and Vascular Center
In 2006, Robin Kennedy developed a nasty cough over a weekend. At urgent care, the team initially suspected pneumonia. Her blood work soon showed something different: she was having a heart attack.
“I was 46 years old and I had never had any heart problems,” she says. By the time she was in the Emergency Department at Cox South, she was having a second heart attack. “CoxHealth saved my life. When I look back now, it’s scary to see how unsure they were about whether I was going to live.”
She had heart surgery and lung surgery and then began a difficult period of rehabilitation and recovery. She was on disability, but she wanted to get back to work. She started looking for positions in insurance support, a field she had worked in before her heart attack.
By chance, a position came open in Cardiovascular Services in the summer of 2013.
“The doctors in 2006 told me I might never work again, but now here I am.”
Kennedy recalls the first time she saw Dr. Danny Penick at work. Dr. Penick had been on duty when she came into the ER in 2006. Now, she was on the elevator with him.
“I turned to him and said, ‘Do you know you saved my life?’ He said, ‘Really? You look like you’re doing well now.’ I said, ‘Yes, and I’m working for you!’”
Kennedy says she is proud each day to do work that supports physicians like Dr. Penick and Dr. Mark Anderson, who did one of her surgeries.
“It’s been a wonderful experience for me,” she says. “The team atmosphere here is different than anywhere I’ve ever worked. I can’t remember being happier. Every day, I see employees caring about one another. I feel like I know these people not just as co-workers, but as friends.”
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