She Owes Her Life To St. Joe's Nurses, Woman Tells Joliet Patch

JOLIET, IL — On the first day of the first strike of 2024 for hundreds of Ascension St. Joe's Hospital nurses, Ester "Jean" Workman showed up to let the nurses know that she credits them with saving her life last month. This weekend, she and Steve Workman will get married.

Jean Workman said she was hospitalized at St. Joe's for seven days in January and without the nurses' care, she would not have made the recovery.

She implored the higher-ups who run the Ascension health organization to give the St. Joe's nurses what they are asking for.

"I about died," Jean Workman told Joliet Patch editor's on Thursday afternoon.

Jean Workman and her future husband stood along the nurses' picket line in front of the hospital entrance signs for "AMITA." Even though Ascension acquired Joliet's hospital from AMITA in April 2022, the Ascension health company conglomerate continues to keep up all the AMITA signs throughout the medical center campus.

Jean Workman told Patch she suffered from a bout of the flu and then was struck with pneumonia in January, requiring her week-long hospital stay at St. Joe's.

"These nurses are fabulous," she remarked. "Seven days and they took fabulous care of me. I really think highly of these nurses. I'm just so lucky."

Jean Workman said she has not fully recovered from her pneumonia and influenza, "but they got me to where I need to be. Keep the nurses working," she declared.

Steve Workman spoke up and added that he wants the higher-ups who run Ascension to come to the collective bargaining and give the nurses union what they are asking for.

"They deserve that," he said. "We both had the flu, but mine went away and hers progressed into pneumonia."

If it was not for the outstanding care that Jean received at St. Joe's, Steve Workman doubts they would be getting married this Saturday.

"They saved her life," he said. "Give them what they need."