From patient to employee

The medical staff at UCHealth Parkview Medical Center (PMC) got Donald Christine back on his feet after suffering a major heart attack.

Now Christine works at Parkview helping patients and providing encouragement to them when needed.

Christine was pumping gas into his truck in 2017 and fell down on the pavement, as people behind him in the fuel line honked unaware of what was happening.

A person from the back of the line came to check on Christine, administered CPR, and got him breathing and his heart working again.

Christine suffered a major heart attack and was transported via ambulance to PMC where he was rushed to the cardiac wing and had surgery.

“The last thing I remember was getting gas,” Christine said. “I was dead on the sidewalk, basically. I woke up in an ambulance.”

Christine spent the next month at PMC getting better. He spent another month doing rehab at home before he began to feel like his old self again.

A truck driver for 22 years, Christine decided to retire in 2022.

Feeling like he needed something to do following his brief retirement, he decided to go work at the hospital that cared for him five years prior.

He was hired at PMC as a transporter in November 2022.

“My daughter is a nurse here, a registered nurse in the operating room, so she told me after I retired to come on over and do some good here,” Christine said. “I was just hanging out after retirement. I’m too active to just sit around all day so I knew I had to do something just to stay busy and keep me healthy.”

As a transporter, Christine traverses all around the five-story hospital getting patients where they need to be.

He is a comforting presence for some in a time of uncertainty and fear in their lives.

“I try to share my experience with patients because a lot of times they’re scared if they’re going through a procedure or they’re unsure of what’s going to happen, so I try to talk to them and reassure them,” Christine said. “I tell them, ‘Hey I went through it, and I feel like I’m 35 again.’ I just try to offer comfort because I’m proof you can get better.”

Getting to talk with and meet new people every day is one of the aspects of the job Christine cherishes the most.

He said he also loves all the medical staff he gets to work with daily.

Staying active is important to Christine, and this job also allows him to do that with all the moving that’s required.

“I get about five miles in a day. I track my steps on my phone,” Christine said. “I’ve lost about 10 pounds since I started working here.”

Because of what he’s gone through, Christine said, he looks at life a little differently now. He got a tattoo of a skull on the inner part of his left arm to remind himself he could not be here today.

“I thought I was Superman, but I got some dirt kicked in my face,” he said. “I got a second chance in life. Whenever I get sad, blue, disappointed, my wife just tells me it could be worse.”