As a regional trauma and referral center, Banner Wyoming Medical Center is the largest hospital in Wyoming and provides comprehensive heart, stroke and trauma care and more to the people of Wyoming. The hospital’s team is made up of people with a genuine desire to take care of their friends, family and neighbors and to keep that care in the state. 

These are just some of the faces behind Banner Wyoming Medical Center.

Meet Tom,

Tom Sherwin was a pipe welder for more than 15 years before deciding he needed a career change. After more than a dozen knee surgeries and a lot of time spent in hospitals over the years, his wife encouraged him to think about a career in health care.

At first, he thought he might be a paramedic but ultimately decided to pursue a respiratory therapy degree at Casper College. He’s now been a respiratory therapist for more than 11 years and began managing Banner Health’s Sleep Lab in Casper in 2019.

“It’s important to me to give every patient the best care,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side, and I know how much a kind word means.”

Tom grew up on a 30,000-acre ranch west of Casper and enjoys everything outdoors, including bow hunting, fishing, hiking, rock hounding, and prospecting. If he’s not outside, he enjoys spending time with his wife, four daughters and grandson.

Meet Sam,

All of the males in Sam Liday’s family are firefighters, so it seemed clear that
might be his career path as well. His mother is a pharmacist and he thought
about following in her footsteps, but she talked him out of it. Firefighting
didn’t feel like his life calling, so he decided to pursue nursing school.

“I knew I wanted to do something that would have an impact,” said Sam.

Originally from Idaho and educated in Montana, Sam is accustomed to life in
the West and moved to Casper almost two years ago with his girlfriend who is
from here. She is a firefighter. Sam is a nurse on Banner’s Wyoming Medical
Center’s Neuro Unit.

When Sam isn’t at work, he enjoys everything outdoors, including hunting,
skiing and especially fly fishing along the North Platte River.

Meet Kindal,

A dog-adoring, sun-worshipping, golf-loving LPN.

Kindal Kott moved to Wyoming from a small town in Texas when she was 13. After high school, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do for a career, but knew she wanted to stay in Casper.

“I really like Wyoming,” she said.

Kindal decided to get her CNA license and has worked on Banner Wyoming
Medical Center’s Medical Unit for about three years. She was inspired by
her co-workers and one of her cousins who is a NICU nurse to pursue
nursing school and has been holding down her job as an LPN while
attending nursing school at Casper College.

“I just felt like it was the right thing to do,” she said.

In Kindal’s limited free time, she enjoys walking her two blue heelers
and playing golf.

Meet Jonica,

A dog-loving, walleye-fishing, amateur-bowling paramedic.

A scary experience as a teenager is what led Jonica Fields to health care.
A tumor was discovered in her sinus cavity when she was just 14, which forced
the Worland-native to spend a lot of time at Children’s Hospital in Denver.
Fortunately, the tumor was benign and able to be removed, and she’s been
able to lead a normal life.

Jonica decided to pursue her paramedic degree but after graduating about
10 years ago, there were no job openings in the ambulance department. She
pivoted and decided to take a job in Banner Wyoming Medical Center’s lab as
a phlebotomist and waited about 6 months for a paramedic job to open.
Today, she’s in nursing school.

“I really love the ambulance, but I don’t feel like this is the kind of job I can do
until I’m 65,” she said.

In her free time, Jonica loves just about anything outside, especially if there
is no cell service.

Meet Hong,

A humidity-loving, family-adoring, joyful-cooking laundry aide.

Hong Hatterman moved to Wyoming from Vietnam after she met and
married her Wyoming-born husband. His mother, Hong’s mother-in-law, is
also Vietnamese, which helped ease the big transition.

“The hardest thing was the weather,” she said. Even after 26 years, she says
she still misses the humidity in Vietnam.

She doesn’t have the opportunity to return to Vietnam very often, but the
family gets together to cook traditional food that feels like home, and she’s
able to instill some of her cultural traditions in her two children.

Hong came to work at the hospital and worked in housekeeping for two
years before transitioning to laundry, where she has spent more than 17
years. She said she has thought about going back to school to become a
nurse, but she loves people and the teamwork in the laundry department.

“When you’re happy with what you’re doing, time flies,” she said.

For more information on the faces behind Banner Wyoming Medical Center, and all of the services they provide, visit the Banner Wyoming Medical Center website or follow them on Facebook.

Related

Wyoming has sold 640 acres of land to the federal government for $100 million after what the WyoFile calls “decades of political maneuvering.” The Kelly Parcel has been owned by Wyoming since the state was established, but USA Today reports it became part of Grand Teton National Park in 1950. (Other outlets, however, including Cowboy State Daily, report that the parcel abuts the national park and that the sale adds the land to the park.) The sale follows years of discussions over what to do with the parcel, with the state’s Board of Land Commissioners having previously considered putting it up for public auction, which would have meant private developers could have bought it. The sale to the federal government will prohibit private development on the land. (More Grand Teton National Park stories.)

An avalanche killed one skier and injured another after the group they were in triggered the large snowslide while ascending a mountain in western Wyoming.

The avalanche happened on Saturday in a backcountry area about 20 miles east of Grand Teton National Park.

As the group of four people went up a steep slope at an elevation of 10,400 feet, a large slab of snow about five feet thick broke away and slid, fully burying the victim and partially burying a second skier, according to Teton County Search and Rescue and the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.

open image in gallery

Advertisement

Authorities received an alert about the accident just before noon. It took rescuers almost four hours to reach the scene by skis after a helicopter tried to reach the site but had to turn around because of stormy weather.

A series of snowstorms have swept through the area in recent weeks, including one on Saturday, said National Weather Service forecaster Jason Straub.

The skier’s death marks the fifth person to be killed by an avalanche in the U.S. this winter.