'Oh my gosh, I can breathe!' A patient’s life-changing care at SIU Medicine
For Caron Yates, the simple act of taking a breath used to feel impossible.
As a full-time real estate agent and proud grandmother of six, Caron is used to staying busy. But for years, chronic sinus infections disrupted her life—striking almost every month and making it hard to sleep, breathe or feel her best.
“It constantly felt like I had a bag over my head,” she recalls. “I just never felt like I could breathe.”
Hope finally came during one of many visits to a local urgent care when a nurse offered a suggestion that changed everything: “You probably need sinus surgery, and I know someone really good at SIU Medicine.”
That someone was Dr. Dana Crosby, chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at SIU School of Medicine. Caron asked around—and the response was unanimous.
“I asked several of my clients, many of whom are physicians, who they would trust for sinus surgery,” Caron said. “Every one of them said, ‘Dr. Dana Crosby.’”
Caron met with Crosby in late March. Within minutes, her fears about surgery began to ease.
“She sat with me for over an hour, asking questions, explaining everything and really listening to how I felt,” Caron said. “She was sincere, genuine and incredibly kind. That doesn’t always happen in medicine, and it meant so much to me.”
“With her busy life, Caron hadn’t realized how significantly her nasal polyps were impacting her quality of life. It was immediately clear that she was struggling more than she realized, and the combination of endoscopic sinus surgery and medical management would greatly improve her quality of life,” said Dr. Dana Crosby.
Six weeks later, Caron had surgery. And almost immediately, her life changed. 
“The moment I woke up, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I can breathe!’ What sounds like such a simple thing was amazing to me. I didn’t even realize how bad it had been.”
Before surgery, Caron often woke up gasping for air.
“I had to sleep with my mouth open, and I still couldn’t breathe,” she said. “Now, I sleep all night. My mouth stays closed. I just breathe.”
Her recovery was also smoother than she ever expected.
“There wasn’t a single drop of blood, no complications—nothing like what I had imagined,” she said. “It was easy, not stressful at all.”
At her first post-op appointment, Caron looked Dr. Crosby in the eye and said, “I’ve got something to say to you. I dearly love you, for helping me. You’ve improved my quality of life so much.”
Caron’s story is a great reminder of why I do this work”, said Dr. Crosby. “It’s not just about treating disease, it’s helping patients rediscover the simple joys in life they sometimes did not even realize they were missing.”
Now, Caron manages her health with a simple saline rinse and continues to sing the praises of the physician who helped her breathe freely again.
“I would recommend Dr. Crosby to anyone,” Caron said. “She’s not just an exceptional surgeon—she’s a person who truly cares.”
