Best Health Care Professional
Judy Williams Sponsored By:
Outstanding Health Care Professional honoree takes winding career path By RANDY CAPPS
W
oody Allen once said that, “if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Judy Williams can’t help but chuckle at the career path she’s traveled, and despite the twists and turns, her 19 years of exemplary service as a hyperbaric technician in the UNC Health Johnston Wound Care Center has earned her recognition as the 2022 Johnston Now Honors Outstanding Health Care Professional Award. “I have a long history with health care, but everything I do I just say that God has put me on the path,” Williams, a native of Micro, said. “In school, everything I took was business and accounting. That was my focus. I was going to be an office person. Back in the '90s, someone at a rest home needed help terribly. I had taken a friend there to apply, and they hired her on the spot and said, ‘Do you want to work, too?’ I was like, ‘No,’ but fast forward and I did go to work there part time. My husband was overseas in Desert Storm, so that put that in motion. I started working there. I learned a lot, and went and got 18 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
my CNA. It just built from there. “I got into EMS. My brother had gotten into fire and EMS from his teen years. I had learned enough health care and been around him long enough that (I decided) to volunteer. So I did that for some years.” She was working with Dr. Manmohan Singh when the wound center opened in 2003, and another twist of fate changed her career course once again. “I have a lot of students that come through, and I have to say — since I have no other explanation for it — that my job is a God-given job,” she said. “When the wound center opened, (Dr. Singh) was chosen to be medical director. I worked with the staff at Johnston Health to get him credentialed to do that. And I was asked if I was coming with him. I was like, ‘No, I’m going to stay here and run the office.’ They just kind of kept on, ... I had applied for the front desk, and when I went in for my interview, the director said, ‘You have a lot of medical background.’ And by that point, I did. Nearly 10 years.” The hospital had a different job in mind for her, one in hyperbarics.
“I remember it so well,” she said. “I gave her a look and said, ‘What is that?’ I had no idea what it was. She explained it to me, and said they’d take care of everything.” Everything included a two-week training course at Ohio State University, and after 19 years on the job, she could easily teach that class. “Out here, we breathe 21% oxygen,” she said. “When the patients are in the chamber, they’re breathing 100% (oxygen). And it’s pressurized, so it shrinks down the oxygen molecules and they attach to the red blood cells and help the wound to heal faster. It grows new cells, helps kill bacteria and reduces edema (swelling). “I love doing what I do because I get to connect with the patients. My patients come every day, Monday through Friday. They’re in the chamber for two hours a day, and they come for six to 12 weeks. So, we build a relationship, we build a bond. Talking every day, I get to hear about their families. I get to know them. It’s not just ‘Room so-and-so down the hall needs something.’ It’s a person.” She’s thankful that the hospital allows
