News

At 230 pounds, Carrie Taylor wanted to reclaim her life. After failed fad diets and weight-loss supplements, she came to Saint Luke's Surgical Specialists at Saint Luke's North Hospital–Barry Road, curious about our surgical weight-loss options. Today, at 115 pounds—half her original size—she’s not just living. She’s thriving.

Cali Horton, a 21-year-old student from Blue Springs, was a survivor from day one.

Her mother, Heather Horton, was pregnant with twins and diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome—uneven blood flow between twins sharing a placenta. Both twins, Cali and her sister Kara, were born prematurely and spent three weeks in Saint Luke’s neonatal intensive care unit.

As a result, Cali suffered from a rare vascular malformation of the brain, which required radiation treatment at age 2. Over time, the treatment fully cured her malformation.

It’s a calm and cozy afternoon in Vern’s Pub at Saint Luke’s Bishop Spencer Place, where residents Carol Owen, 96, and Jean McGreevy Green, 95, are laughing and carrying on like old friends. That’s because they are, having met as children back in 1932 and now living as neighbors at Bishop Spencer Place in the golden years of their retirement.