First Person

October 31, 2025

My doctor told me I have cancer. Why did I feel so relieved? It’s weird, but I have my reasons. Hear me out.

My wife summed it up: “You’re the happiest person I ever heard of who just found out he has cancer.”

By Wayne Wood
May 16, 2025

‘This could happen any day.’ Volunteers and staff pitch in for the first large-scale mass casualty drill held at VUMC in 15 years.

Dozens of people pitched in to help leadership at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt get an up-to-date review of emergency preparedness.

By Evan Dorian
June 24, 2024

From ‘what happened’ to ‘what now:’ How one VUMC News & Communications writer became part of her own story about the Vanderbilt Health Coaching Program

Danny Bonvissuto set out to write about the Vanderbilt Health Coaching Program. Then the program manager offered to show her how health coaches draw out intrinsic motivation in their clients, aka patients, to get to what Danny dubbed the Next Right Thing.

May 7, 2024

I wasn’t sure my hands were worthy of a blessing. Then I heard: “Bless these hands and the work they perform,” and I got misty-eyed.

I don’t perform direct patient care; I’m a writer. But I learned that the annual Blessing of Hands is for all of us.

By Jessica Pasley
November 6, 2023

Christmas Village, benefiting the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, is one of the oldest philanthropic events in Nashville. For many, it has been a family tradition for generations.

A story of love, and loss, and shopping

By Danny Bonvissuto
May 15, 2023

I was the last person in an iron lung at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

It was in a storage room. It still worked. For some reason, I was allowed to get in it.

By Wayne Wood
February 23, 2023

Learning how to “Stop the Bleed” is something we all can do

Stop the Bleed courses, like those taught at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, teach any of us – even those without medical training – how to save some of those lives.
By Jill Clendening
December 20, 2022

Last Christmas, I knew a liver transplant was my only chance to survive. This holiday, I’m alive because of the ultimate gift.

It never leaves my thoughts that someone I don't know made it possible for me to still be here.
By John Howser
July 21, 2022

Allie had a stroke when she was 2 years old. Her doctor tells the story of her resilience and her family’s love.

Allie had a blood clot deep in her brain and had only a 5 percent chance of survival.
By Jay Wellons
February 4, 2022

A memoir of the COVID years: a Vanderbilt ICU nurse remembers patients who died, families who wept, and discovers the importance of hearing “thank you” and caring for herself

"I realized that my mechanism of avoiding and ignoring death in the workplace had taken its toll on me."
By Rebecca Tucci
November 1, 2021

I was a volunteer shower-taker for Emergency Preparedness. I came away impressed — and very clean.

A drill tests how well the Medical Center would be able to respond during an actual disaster, and serves as response training for VUMC personnel.
By Jill Clendening
June 11, 2020

My daughter was born in the middle of the pandemic. She is going to get very tired of hearing that story when she’s older.

I can already picture Natalie rolling her eyes when she's 16.
By Matt Batcheldor
April 9, 2020

My daughter had surgery at Children’s Hospital during the COVID-19 changes. Here’s what was different — and what was, thankfully, the same.

Temperature checks and social distancing were very different. The care and concern had not changed at all.
By Jessica Pasley
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