Up-and-coming singer-songwriter shows her gratitude to DCMH
UPPER DARBY » When Drexel Hill-born singer/songwriter Valerie Broussard came home for the holiday, the last place she thought she’d end up would be a hospital ER. But in the early hours of Thursday, Dec. 21, that’s where she was.
Broussard had been feeling unwell for days leading up to her trip home from Los Angeles. Battling what she thought was a common cold, the musician — who has been featured on TV (“Riverdale”) and in film (Marvel’s “Inhumans”) — waited it out as long as she could. When her abdominal pain did not subside, she went to the Emergency Department at Delaware County Memorial Hospital — coincidentally, the hospital she was born at.
“Everyone in the ER was so good to me and caring,” said Broussard. Her medical team performed tests, and once they had a diagnosis, they delivered it with humor and compassion. “They said, ‘Surprise — you have appendicitis, but you’re going to be fine,’” Broussard said. She was then in the hands of DCMH general surgeon James Giannone, D.O., who performed a laparoscopic appendectomy.
Broussard’s visit was a homecoming in more ways than one. She was born at DCMH and cared for in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). When she arrived at DCMH last week, Broussard learned that the woman registering her in the Emergency Department was also in the NICU at the same time she was. “I thought, this feels like home,” she said.
Appendicitis surgery requires a short post-procedure hospital stay. As brief as her stay was, Broussard was thankful for the team who cared for her on the hospital’s 5 West Med/Surg Unit. “My nurses on the fifth floor were amazing,” she said, “so kind and caring. They took really good care of me.”
Now on the mend, Broussard is back in California, where she is working on her debut album.
“I’m so happy I wasn’t in LA when this happened,” she says. “I’m glad I was home with my friends and family. I’m glad I was at DCMH.”