Bryant Odland first came to us in August 2018, here is his experience with Bowdle Healthcare:

My first experience started August 17 of last year. I had a 4-wheeling accident out in a field out southwest of town here. My client brought me into the hospital; I was received in the emergency room. They checked me over and I had broken ribs, problems with my leg. They did all the radiology stuff, which went right to Aberdeen. They have access to all the expertise in the world. And you know I wanted to go home of course. They said, “No you’re not going home.”

I ended up spending seven or eight days here. I could say that Wayne Washenberger, PA-C and Dr. Lacey Kessler over there, and all those people, they were very dedicated. I felt very comfortable here, I felt very safe. I was actually in very good hands, I felt.

After that in December of that year, I had had these sore throats and they would come and go. I had already been to the hospital so my deductible was met. I said, “I’m going to find out what’s wrong with my throat.” I came to Wayne here at Bowdle Healthcare.

He gave me medication and said, “When you run out of them, come back and see me.”

I came back and it didn’t even faze him. He immediately got on the phone and called Dr. Cihak in Aberdeen, he’s an ears nose and throat specialist. I drove from Bowdle to Aberdeen to see him; now that’s taking care of business. I got to see Dr. Cihak and he takes a look and says, “That doesn’t look so good, we’re going to have to do a biopsy.”

I was on some blood thinners so we had to wait a week. And then he did it and of course, it came back and it was cancer. Before I left Aberdeen and before I got home to Roscoe, he had made me an appointment at the Mayo Clinic.

“I was very happy and very comfortable with being there.”

At the beginning of January, I ended up going to Mayo and they confirmed my diagnosis of Throat Cancer. I went to the Mayo Clinic and they did a skin graph and rebuilt my throat. I was in the hospital for about nine days following the surgery. When I came home, I came home here.

Feeding was required through a tube, and I had some complications. I was in pretty rough shape; I was spitting up a lot of blood. And then again being here was a very good experience because they took care of me, and they watched over me. I got strong enough and I went back to Mayo for a swallowing test and they decided after 30 some days to pull the tube out of my nose and my trach tube that was here.

Then I went through six weeks of radiation, but Bowdle Hospital here in the clinic were very instrumental with my time before I got back from surgery until I had to return. It was big-time because I was not very mobile and I needed feeding and I needed medicine and I needed care.

Well you know, when I came here I was brought here. And frankly, if it had been up to me I probably would have tried to shake it off and not go anywhere. My client told me, “I’m taking you to Bowdle and they’re going to check you out.” And there wasn’t any arguing.

I was so grateful that he made me do that. I still wanted to go home, but Wayne said, “You are not going anywhere. You have some serious things that we need to keep an eye on.”

So it was a great experience. And I’d never been to a hospital before; I didn’t have any experience with all this. It was top shelf and the people were. You can’t be very good at something unless you are passionate about it, and that’s been my experience here with them.