Larry Ziegenfuss: A Biomedical Technician’s Journey of Innovation and Compassion

From comforting patients with his music to helping save the lives of those in their time of need, Biomedical Technician Larry Ziegenfuss is providing “expert help when patients need it most” at AdventHealth Waterman in Florida.

“The second week I was on the job, I walked into a room and saw a patient just wide open on a table with doctors working on him. I felt like this is where I belong. I’m here to serve a purpose,” Larry said.

Since his start in 2009, Larry worked on respiratory ventilators and beds and was entrusted over the years to recommend therapeutic technology that could help the hospital system. The drive to find the best equipment for his patients turned him onto USME, which directed him to Turn Medical’s Pronova-O2™ Automated Prone Therapy System. Just a few weeks later, the hospital had a respiratory patient in need, and he tried the specialty bed.

“The patient had been far along with several respiratory issues and, unfortunately, the prognosis was not very good,” Larry said. “We were able to get the patient flipped over on the bed, and we almost immediately saw the results. We could see the progress overnight with how her lungs began responding. Before, she could barely breathe.”

When clinicians eventually turned the patient back over, she started failing immediately, so they had to rotate her over several times throughout the day.

“The Pronova was so easy for staff to catch on to,” Larry explained. “We had a whole team of people in the room watching, and it was enlightening. The representative from USME was with us 16 hours a day. He just wanted to see the patient through.”

After only a week and a half of being on the Pronova, the patient was able to stand up and walk out of the hospital. Life-saving moments like these are what push Larry to go to work every day.

“In a job like this, you are getting the chance to help your community, the people you meet every day, see at the grocery store and even your family. I have the opportunity to hold hands and pray with people in an environment that I never thought I’d be in,” Larry shared. “This hospital has made a big difference in our lives personally. Two of my grandsons were born at this hospital. My wife’s life was saved here when she battled cancer.”

Larry spends his time around the holidays walking through the halls of the ICU practicing his other skill, playing the violin. He’ll stop in patients’ rooms and take requests.

“Bringing a patient’s mood up helps people heal. I had an experience where I was playing in a hallway and a mother asked me to come to her son’s room. He was in his teens, and he asked me to play a song for him. I played it for him, and it was clear that song meant a lot to him and his mother. He quietly thanked me while his mother was crying and said he was going to be dying pretty soon, but that my playing meant so much to him. It’s just one of those things you don’t forget. Bringing up a patient’s mood can help people heal, and that’s what I try to do.”

We are honored to name Larry Ziegenfuss as April’s Healthcare Hero.