Praise and Gratitude
Dear Dr. Gustafson,
On June 6th, my wife XXX, was transferred by helicopter to UMASS Memorial University Campus after suffering a ruptured aneurysm in her brain. Under the care of Dr. Rex and Dr. Muehlschlegel, she made it safely through the initial surgery to coil the aneurysm and into recovery. The team of assistants were a great comfort during the surgery, keeping us informed as they could. I am a polymer chemist and created many of the radiopaque elastomer formulations while at Foster Corporation in Putnam, CT, that are used to make the catheters and catheter tips for this procedure. I never expected it to be tested on someone so close to me. During the initial consultation with Dr. Rex, I felt confident that the catheter was in the hands of the best. XXX spent the next two weeks in the Neuro ICU, where it was quite obvious that the level of commitment to stabilizing some of the most difficult cases in the hospital was deeply personal. I cannot imagine the stress that your healthcare givers go through in that ICU on a daily basis, but we were so fortunate to be in the hands of that UMASS team. We lost track of all the physicians, students, specialists, PA's and nurses from all the necessary disciplines that helped heal XXX, but we appreciate the care, skill and personal involvement of all of them. We could not have asked for better group of people. XXX's outcome was excellent and she was released from the hospital 14 days later, in time to get a couple days rest at home before attending our youngest daughter's wedding on Saturday the 23rd.
We tried to thank everyone as we went along, but I'm sure we missed some key people as schedules revolved. So, I wanted to thank you and hope that our thanks and appreciation make it down the line to all the doctors, nurses and staff who helped create this miracle.
Sincerely yours,
YYY
Dear Dr.Gustafson and Mrs. Lemay,
Please feel free to use this note however you feel it will best serve the staff. I'm sure my thoughts echo those of many who rush into your facilities, get stabilized and then head home or to rehab to begin the long road back towards normalcy. We are very fortunate that recovery for XXX is just taking it easy and waiting while the headaches diminish in frequency and strength. This gave me a little slack time to reflect back on how everything fell together from having the right neuro-radiologist available along with an anesthesiologist and surgery techs on call and ready to step in. Even having the right operating room with the right equipment at the right time all factored into XXX not having to wait before receiving the right interventional, minimally invasive surgery. Having all the right pieces in place set the stage for a positive outcome, but nothing can compare to the compassion, skill, and commitment of the staff for turning the potential for a positive outcome into reality. Every time I do think back to the string of events from the first 911 responders arriving, to the doctors at the Harrington Hospital ER diagnosing the issue, and sending XXX's CT Scan images to UMASS while arranging for a Life-Flight before they told us what was going on to save every minute, to getting in for surgery to coil fill the aneurysm (I've made the catheters and seen the videos a hundred times and still can't believe it's possible), to checking hourly for any signs of complications for two weeks, while keeping the pain manageable, I have to thank God for all the people who have dedicated their lives to healing others. So many things could have gone wrong or been overlooked. But everyone was at their personal and professional best while being calming without creating unreasonable expectations. Anything you can do to let the staff know how greatly appreciated they are would be awesome.
Sincerely yours,
YYY