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DENISE: I'm Denise Keszkowsky. I've been with Blue Cross Blue Shield for about three years
now. Unfortunately, I'm only 52 years old, but I have a lot of different health
concerns and issues. I have hypertension. I also have diabetes,
and I also have coronary artery disease. And I've had five stents placed in my heart.
DONNA: My name is Donna Leonard. I'm a nurse case manager at Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
I'll get a certain number of cases that will be sent over to me, a different variety of
people. They either have complex health issues going on, something where a case manager might
be able to help them navigate through the health care system a little bit easier.
DENISE: Donna was assigned to my case. She would call me every two weeks because she
thought I needed it. She would ask me how I was doing, and I would tell her I'm having
a little bit of problems with my blood pressure, and I don't understand what's going on. The
medicine doesn't seem to work, or whatever. DONNA: So I asked her if she had a blood pressure
monitor. DENISE: And I said no, I don't have a blood
pressure monitor. She says, well, let me send you one in the mail. And I said, you're kidding.
You're going to send me a blood pressure monitor? And she goes yeah.
DONNA: The next time I went to talk with her, she was very excited. She said that basically
the blood pressure monitor had saved her life. DENISE: I wasn't feeling good this one morning,
so I went to my doctor. And I told him I feel like my head aches. I feel like I have a very
high blood pressure. And he checked it, and my blood pressure was a little, a little elevated
there, not bad. DONNA: She went home. The headache kept getting
worse. DENISE: I was going to just go to bed and
just forget about it. But then I said, you know, Donna gave me that blood pressure kit,
and she sent it for a reason. I'm going to check my blood pressure. So I checked my blood
pressure on it, and my blood pressure was extremely elevated. It was like very high,
like 210 over 170. DONNA: She had a neighbor contact 911 for her.
DENISE: They came out, and they did take me
to the hospital, and my blood pressure was extremely high. But because I was in that
window of time that they had in order to save me, to give me the TPA to save me from that
stroke, I was saved, and I don't have any residual side effects because of that.
I have to thank Donna, and I have to thank Blue Cross and Blue Shield, because I think
they saved my life.
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