PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2023

Mary Marvin (left) and Jill Teubel

T here’s got to be a better way,” they kept saying. Two nurses at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center decided to find a better way and in doing so, became inventors. As surgery department nurses, Jill Teubel and Mary Marvin were encountering increasing numbers of surgery patients with medical devices implanted in their bodies. An implanted device with wires or batteries has its own set of precautions which must be taken before a patient undergoes surgery. In the absence of those precautions, a device can be destroyed or a patient injured. The primary risks regarding a device implanted during surgery are the electrocautery tools used to make and close an incision or remove a tumor. Sometimes, a magnet must be placed over a device or a particular type of cautery instrument must be used. Sometimes, a manufacturer’s

S P O T L I G H T

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SETTING THE TABLE FOR INNOVATION In the ‘bionic man and woman era,’

two local nurses saw a problem, and their Device Table was born

BY LINDA SMITH BROWN PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

30 APRIL 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE