January 19, 2001

James J. Mongan, MD, president of the MGH, often receives letters from grateful patients and their families about the care they received at the hospital. Below is such a letter about the Catheterization Unit.

Dear Dr. Mongan:

Recently, my husband was a patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Catheterization Unit of the Ellison Building on the 11th floor. We recently moved from New York to Massachusetts where we continued my husband's care for his heart problems.

Ostensibly, New York has some of the finest doctors and hospitals in the country. In my assessment, they could not "hold a candle" to the care we received from the professional staff in your facility. No "stone was left unturned." Every part of my husband's anatomy was checked and rechecked.

Igor Palacios, MD, my husband's attending physician, is absolutely the best. He assessed my husband's condition and conferred with other doctors as to the best course to take to help alleviate his heart problems. He explained all the details we needed to know regarding the angioplasty he was performing and the stents he was installing and did so with patience and understanding, treating us with the utmost dignity. As I expressed to Dr. Palacios, in New York, doctors think they are God; here they are human beings.

In addition, Laurel Tenney, RN, his daytime nurse, could not have been more professional and caring. She treated my husband almost as if he had been family. No task was too great for her to carry out. In fact, after encountering some difficulty after the second procedure, they placed him in the Critical Coronary Care Unit to monitor his vital signs. On her way home after her shift had ended, Laurel came down to the eighth floor to check on his condition. Such dedication is rare indeed. Not too many people take the time to demonstrate such genuine care and understanding. She is truly a Florence Nightingale.

I could go on and on about the caliber of your facility — the doctors, nurses and other professional staff — but I think by now you must know how grateful and thankful my family is that my husband was fortunate in being a patient at the Massachusetts General Hospital with the most capable, caring and dedicated staff I have ever encountered.

Plaudits to you for running such an exemplary hospital and for recruiting the best doctors and other professional staff anywhere in the country, or to be even more presumptuous, in the world.

Sincerely,

Elaine Goldmintz