When Shawn and De’Angelia Huggins’ daughter, Sadie, starts to not feel well, they can see it in her eyes. The normally happy child gets sluggish, and her eyes seem to droop. While that may not be overly concerning for many parents, for the Huggins, it is.
Sadie, who is only 8, has a history of asthma and pneumonia. It’s been so severe in the past that she’s had an extended hospital stay. When Sadie – or her twin sister, Story – starts to have those telltale signs of not feeling well, their parents immediately spring into action, knowing that when one twin gets sick, the other will likely be sick next. And if Sadie is ill, she needs a diagnosis and treatment before things escalate to a more serious situation.
When sickness strikes — especially in the middle of the night, a weekend or a holiday — the Huggins know exactly where to go.
Like, for example, on Thanksgiving last year.
“We all were cooking, my mother-in-law was in the kitchen, the fellas were making sure things were taken care of, we had the football game on, and we noticed Sadie seemed to be a little lethargic. We had a house of guests, laughing and getting Thanksgiving Day dinner prepared, but she just seemed to be sluggish,” Shawn said.
De’Angelia’s motherly intuition kicked in, and she knew Sadie needed care right away. Shawn stepped up to take Sadie while De’Angelia held down the fort at home.
“We’d already had great service from Iredell Urgent Care in the past, so we said ‘Hey, we know a place that we can get her in, make sure she’s seen, and she gets the care that she needs,’” Shawn said, noting that he called the center before going just to be sure they would be open. “We felt bad because it was Thanksgiving, but they said ‘No, this is what we do, we’re here to care for your child, and even though it’s a holiday, you’re still going to receive the same level of service.’ And we were grateful for that.”
And that’s exactly what happened. From the moment Shawn and Sadie entered the building, they were impressed.
“When we first got there, we were greeted, and I began to tell them why we were there, and the person at the front desk immediately started talking to Sadie and made it a personal experience,” Shawn said. “From the time we got there until the time we left, they really made it about Sadie and about making sure we had everything we needed. You could just feel the care in their voices.”
The provider on duty even made sure to include De’Angelia in the treatment process as well, speaking with her through FaceTime to make sure she understood what was happening with Sadie and reassuring her that all would be well.
After an x-ray and assessment, Sadie was quickly diagnosed, given the medicine she needed, and she and Shawn were back home in time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.
That experience is what the Huggins have come to expect from Iredell Urgent Care, now having been there multiple times, no matter the time of day. In fact, their first experience at Iredell Urgent Care was in the very early morning hours when Sadie was having trouble breathing. As always, the Huggins were on high alert and concerned about pneumonia and didn’t want to waste any time getting her care. Thankfully, they had previously had a conversation with their pediatrician about what to do when they needed nonemergent care outside of office hours.
“When our pediatrician’s office told us about Iredell Urgent Care - Mooresville, it was refreshing to know that we had another option. We’ve gone to other urgent cares in town before, and there’s always the time element – they close at 7, they close at 8. But illnesses don’t have a timestamp. It was nice to know that there is some place to go that is open 24 hours,” De’Angelia said. “It was wonderful – a dream come true, if you will – somewhere we can go after midnight!”
And knowing Iredell Urgent Care has x-ray capabilities was paramount.
“Knowing they had x-ray services, that was key. We needed to get her somewhere where her lungs could be examined and she could get the proper diagnosis and treatment,” De’Angelia said.
Shawn still gets emotional thinking about that first trip to the facility, not knowing what to expect.
“From the time we stepped into the door, I really can’t put into words, but the care that they gave our daughter, because of her history we have to take all things extremely serious, and they got her the proper treatment and we were able to make sure she was good and they just treated her like family,” he said. “We’re so grateful that our pediatrician told us about this place.”
“The communication is fabulous. Every time that we’ve gone, we’ve been greeted with ‘Hello, how are you?’ Even when it was going to be a short wait, or even a long wait, it was ok because we knew the level of service we were going to get,” De’Angelia said. “They come in, they do the exam, the provider is highly qualified and very good at what they do. We were treated with care every time.”
Shawn has been particularly impressed with how well the facility interacts with children.
“The doctors were sympathetic to that, and they explained every step they were taking. That’s helpful for a child because it can be kind of scary; you don’t know what’s going on, and even though mom and dad are there, it still can be a scary situation,” he said. “The care that they gave, I can imagine that most of them either have children or have received training on how to deal with children when they are in a scary environment of the unknown.”
Shawn and De’Angelia want others to know that they can trust Iredell Urgent Care in their time of need.
“I would absolutely tell others you need to go on Bluefield Road to Iredell Urgent Care – that’s where you need to go,” De’Angelia said. “You don’t have to worry about what time it is, because you know injuries and illnesses, they don’t keep time, they come when they come, so if you want quality care and you want to be able to go and have someone respond to your needs at whatever time, absolutely I would send them to Iredell Urgent Care.”
“No matter what kind of situation that you have, this establishment can make sure that you’re treated not only fairly and properly — and it doesn’t matter whether you have a million dollars or two dollars — they care about people. You can see that and because we’ve been there on more than one occasion and seen more than one individual, we can state that for a fact – it’s just one of the best places that we’ve ever experienced.”
Perhaps what stands out most to both Shawn and De’Angelia is the compassion and sincerity of the employees they have associated with while receiving care at Iredell Urgent Care.
“There is a quote: ‘Service to others is the rent you pay here on earth.’ The people that we were exposed to, you can tell that service is important to them, from the time we walked in until the time we left,” Shawn said. “Nobody really wants to have to go to the doctor, but to have that calmness that you’re going to a place that you’re going to get good service and your children are going to be taken care of, you can’t really put a price tag on that.”
Iredell Urgent Care – Mooresville is independently owned and operated locally by Iredell Health System and is the only 24-hour facility of its kind in the area. Learn more at IredellUrgentCare.com.
