Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/50993
CentraState Medical Center. Many major events in Meredith's life have taken place in the rooms of CentraState, including her birth, her marriage, and the births of her two children. Robert A. Portadin, MD, board-certified ob/gyn Meredith was born at CentraState on Sept. 5, 1978, delivered by Robert A. Portadin, MD, board-certified ob/gyn with Women's Physicians and Surgeons and on staff at CentraState. On June 26, 1979, her husband, John, was also born at CentraState. No one could predict that just over 24 years after John was born, he would marry Meredith in the very same hospital where they were born. unfoRgETTablE vows Meredith and John had planned their dream wedding for Sept. 18, 2004, but in September 2003, her father was diagnosed with cancer. They decided to move the wedding to the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2003, but her father took a turn for the worse. "On Nov. 26, three days before the wedding, my dad was rushed to the Emergency Department at CentraState after becoming unconscious," Meredith says. "Father John Bambrick, who was also the priest planning to marry us on Saturday, arrived to give my father his last rites. He asked us if we'd like to be married right then, in the presence of my father." That night, CentraState staff allowed 40 close friends and family members into the Critical Care Unit to witness Meredith and John exchanging their vows. Her father passed away a few hours later. They went on with the original ceremony that Saturday, because Meredith knew it's what her father would have wanted. wElcoming nEw Joy In December 2007, four and a half years after exchanging their vows, the www.centrastate.com Meredith Herold, her husband, John, and their two daughters, Lauren (right) and Emily (left), were all born at CentraState Medical Center. Meredith and John were also married there. January/February 2012 9 a walk down memory lane M eredith Herold, 33, of Bordentown, refers to herself as a "repeat customer" of Herolds returned to CentraState for the birth of their first daughter, Lauren. Meredith had a planned cesarean section, which was performed by Michael A. Kirwin, MD, board-certified ob/gyn with Women's Physicians and Surgeons and on staff at CentraState. "This was my first surgery and I was so scared, but Tracy Christensen, who was an RN in the delivery room, was so comforting," Meredith says. "Along with the other nurses, she answered any questions I had. It was like having your mother to guide you through." Dr. Kirwin also delivered Meredith and John's second daughter, Emily, through another Michael A. Kirwin, MD, board-certified ob/gyn planned C-section in June 2011. Meredith was glad to once again see the familiar faces of the nurses who comforted her four years earlier. "The kindness and compassion this hospital has for patients and their families is evident, from allowing us to exchange our vows to the care they gave me at First Impressions Maternity Center," Meredith says. "Even though CentraState is 45 minutes from my house and another hospital is just 10 minutes away, I would never consider going anywhere else." For more information about maternity services at CentraState, visit www.centrastate.com/maternity or call (866) CENTRA7 (866-236-8727). HD