MTI students hold special ceremony for hospitalized student (Bradenton Herald)

Traci Adams, a Manatee Technical Institute student studying medical assisting, is used to learning how to take care of others. But over the past few weeks, Adams has had to accept care as a patient during a health ordeal that put her in the hospital.While Adams was suffering through an emergency surgery and recovery time in the ICU, the rest of her classmates were getting ready to attend the school’s pinning ceremony to signify that they are now full-fledged medical assistants. Adams had spent the last 13 months preparing for that moment. However, Adams’ classmates had a plan to make sure that she would not miss this special day. A couple weeks before Adams would celebrate her accomplishment of finishing her program, she started having stomach pains. She ignored them at first, but when they became more serious, she decided to go to the hospital.  Adams was admitted to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center for major abdominal surgery that kept her in the ICU for four days.Program director Jane Arnoldi said the pinning ceremony is something that is very important to the medical assisting students.”They work hard during their time here to achieve,” Arnoldi said. “It’s a very fast paced course.”  Adams tried to talk the doctors into letting her go to the pinning ceremony, but they said there was no way they were letting her out of the hospital early.That is when Arnoldi and several students and faculty decided to bring the pinning ceremony to Adams.  This Monday, they visited Adams and her family, including her husband and parents, in the hospital to celebrate with a private ceremony.”We are together and become a family,” Arnoldi said. “Traci has been in and out of doctor appointments, but her heart was set on this.”Adams said that it is a day she would always remember, and Arnoldi said that tears were shed at the special ceremony. “It’s all about the students. If we can do it, we try,” Arnoldi said. “This was a highlight for Traci and for us, too.”

by Erica Earl