Our cover story focuses on a very famous Bay Area legend who came to NorthBay Healthcare looking for a little hope.

Even when he was swatting long fly balls over the right-field fence, San Francisco Giants great Willie McCovey struggled with back problems. In recent years, the Hall of Famer’s pain was getting to the point he could not navigate through his tri-level home. So he sought out one of the region’s most recommended specialists, Dr. Charles Sonu, M.D., at NorthBay Medical Center last summer.

Now, he has high hopes he’ll be able to spend spring training again in Arizona with the rookies, who seek his advice. His is just one example of how advanced medicine practiced at NorthBay Healthcare can deliver better health, and hope for a better lifestyle.

When it comes down to it, our organization is all about hope. Pregnant mothers find hope in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when their babies are born too early. One of our own nurses can move about her busy work after a hopeful hip replacement. Even our volunteers are having an impact, both at home and a world away.

This issue of Wellspring celebrates the hope that lives at NorthBay, in every treatment, every surgery, every encounter. No, not every outcome is a complete success, but in every case there is hope. And sometimes that makes all the difference.