Alison Bowen – Page 5

Nurse Kristen Shikany at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Feinberg Pavilion in Chicago on Dec. 10, 2021.

After 25 years, she left consulting to become a nurse. Then COVID-19 hit.

December 16, 2021 at 12:42 p.m.

It was when Kristen Shikany was a patient herself that she decided to be a nurse. With breast cancer, facing a double mastectomy in 2017, she remembers the comfort nurses...

Terricka Christian, right, plays with a doll with her daughters Jisselle Surratt, 1, center, and Jayla Surratt, 2, on Dec. 6, 2021, in their Humboldt Park neighborhood home. The family is one of many who face the challenge of costly and constant need of diapers for their children.

Diapers are constant, costly and not covered by assistance programs. Here’s how to donate during the holidays

December 8, 2021 at 12:17 p.m.

With two toddlers, Terricka Christian is all too familiar with diapers. At what nonprofits estimate can reach $900 a year, Humboldt Park resident Christian and her husband are one of...

Mariam Paré is seen in her home studio in Naperville on Nov. 24, 2021.

Artists turn to painting with mouth and feet after injuries, with one work featured on a holiday card

December 8, 2021 at 11:02 a.m.

The holiday card shows a familiar image — three people carrying gifts — but was created in a way that might surprise some people. The image, fronting one of the...

Christmas lights and decorations inside the O'Hare International Airport terminal in Chicago.

If you were trapped in O’Hare overnight, what would you do? One writer found awe, fun in unlikely places

December 8, 2021 at 12:41 p.m.

When Baltimore writer Allison Robicelli posted a long tweet thread from O'Hare International Airport after missing her connecting flight, many would have expected a litany of complaints. After all, to...

Dr. Adam Sonabend looks at the published study on a laptop at the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center in Chicago on Dec. 1, 2021.

Glioblastomas, the aggressive brain tumors, might benefit from immunotherapy in some patients, Northwestern research suggests

December 3, 2021 at 9:28 a.m.

As a neurosurgeon regularly treating glioblastomas, Dr. Adam Sonabend followed with interest the rise of immunotherapy, a new way to help cancer patients utilize the power of their own immune...

Cancer survivor Jeri Davis is the author of the coloring book "Greetings from Chemo Country," which features illustrations by more than a dozen artists.

To cope with cancer, Wheaton resident created jokes that became a cartoon coloring book, and therapy for others

December 1, 2021 at 10:57 a.m.

Humor may not be expected on a chemotherapy floor. But for Jeri Davis, jokes became a way to cope. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2020 after some early...

Amy Avila, a student nurse anesthetist, works on an intricate anatomy drawing of the brain that she creates while studying on Nov. 16, 2021, at her Highland Park home. The drawings have been used for coloring by hospital workers to reduce stress.

Highland Park nursing student hopes anatomy drawings relieve stress for colleagues

November 17, 2021 at 4:05 p.m.

The human body is complex. Arteries, nerves, systems. When Amy Avila was learning anatomy, she knew she was a visual learner. So the student nurse anesthetist began sketching out what...

Marzena Przeszlo (centro), capellana del Hospital de la Universidad de Illinois, ora con el personal médico del hospital el martes 9 de noviembre de 2021. La fe y la espiritualidad han ayudado a los trabajadores de la salud a sobrellevar la pandemia de COVID-19.

Fe y prácticas espirituales reconfortan y desafían a trabajadores hospitalarios

November 17, 2021 at 12:17 p.m.

En algún momento, desde que comenzó la pandemia el año pasado, ¿quién no ha cuestionado a Dios o a un poder superior? Las muertes sin sentido, las familias que lloran...

Frozen turkeys are in a cooler at a Pete's Fresh Market on Nov. 2, 2021, in Glen Ellyn.

4 tips for handling Thanksgiving this year

November 17, 2021 at 10:26 a.m.

It's Thanksgiving, and another pandemic holiday season, even though many thought we would be done with all of this. Thankfully, vaccines are available this year, which reduces the issues families...

University of Illinois Hospital Staff Chaplin Marzena Przeszlo passes medical staff as she heads toward a room to play for a patient and staff.

‘I had to believe more in God’: How faith and spiritual practices comfort and challenge hospital workers

November 11, 2021 at 4:30 p.m.

At some moment since the pandemic began last year, who hasn't questioned God or a higher power? The senseless deaths, families grieving loved ones from across a screen, layers of...

All Stories