NEWBERRY — For many, spending time at a hospital can be a scary, stressful experience. This sense of unease can be compounded if one is not in their home country or speaking their native language.
To better serve non-English speakers in the community, Newberry County Memorial Hospital provides interpreting services to those who require them.
Between bilingual employees of the hospital and those who strictly interpret on a freelance basis, NCMH utilizes about eight interpreters for Spanish-speaking patrons.
“The program has grown quite a bit to make sure that we have coverage at all times,” said Public Relations Director Brenda Williams.
One such individual is Tracy Cornejo, an administrative assistant with General Surgical Services who also lends her services to Little Mountain Family Health Center. Cornejo will have been with the hospital 10 years this coming May and said she interprets nearly every day.
“We bring in a lot of Spanish-speaking patients through the clinic and it’s easy because I’m there all the time so we really don’t need to worry about scheduling an interpreter,” Cornejo said.
She is also certified to interpret in the South Carolina court system although her full-time medical responsibilities prevent her from doing so.
“I’ve been called several times but I’ve never been able to do it,” Cornejo said.
Originally from Utah, Cornejo began studying Spanish in school in her early teens but never imagined it would assist her in her future career.
Since relocating to South Carolina, she has traditionally tried to return home every year to visit her family, although this has become more difficult in recent years.
“Now with children, three girls, family and work it’s become a lot less,” she said. “Everything’s getting really expensive so it’s hard to travel around.”
Another interpreter, Jo Carole McCaughrin, specializes in interpreting as her full-time job, although she took an interesting route getting there.
“I started out as a math major and I was just taking Spanish as a requirement and my professor said, ‘You should try majoring in Spanish,’” McCaughrin said.
At the time South Carolina’s Hispanic population was much smaller than it is today and she did not think a degree in Spanish would be of much use.
“I came back the second year and had my professor tell me the same thing so I switched from math, which was getting difficult anyway so I was glad to switch, to Spanish,” McCaughrin said.
After teaching freshman Spanish at USC for two years as a teaching assistant McCaughrin instructed at Whitmire High School and Newberry Academy for numerous years before a severe case of asthma, which she developed from exposure to chalk dust, forced her to retire from teaching.
“I thought, ‘I’ve wasted all this time on this Spanish,’” McCaughrin said. “But I guess the Lord saw down the road that we would have the need for translators so I just felt the Lord intervene in my majoring in Spanish.”
McCaughrin will have been interpreting at the hospital 10 years this coming April.
“I’m thrilled to work here. I feel honored to work here and it’s a blessing to work here. The Hispanic patients are just lovely,” McCaughrin said.
The hospital only staffs Spanish interpreters to meet the needs in this area. For patients who require translation to a language other than Spanish there is a phone service which provides translation for nearly every language imaginable.
“Most people that come in that don’t speak English are aware of this,” Williams said.
Another interpreter, Laddie Ramirez Osborne, has been utilizing her bilingual abilities for 34 years as a general interpreter.
A Mexican-American from El Paso, Texas, Osborne grew up speaking both Spanish and English.
As a young woman she vacationed to South Carolina with a group of friends to see the sights, namely ocean and trees — foreign sights to El Paso eyes, she said.
She loved the area and has been here ever since instructing courses in English as a second language and translating in various fields including medicine, law and real estate.
Knowledge of her services have become widely known, she said, just on a word-of-mouth basis.
“I’m known as La Maestra, ‘The Teacher,’” Osborne said.
In addition to translating Spanish Osborne also uses sign language to communicate with patients who are hearing impaired.
Osborne, who resides in Whitmire, said the most rewarding part of her job is simply helping people to understand.
“It’s hard for someone to come in and not understand a single word, they feel low,” Osborne said. “When I see that they understand and that they’re happy, that’s my reward.”