Community Voices for Health

By Dennis Carman — President and CEO of United Way of Greater Plymouth County

Warning:  What follows is my own humble opinion. Your mileage may vary with your own individual experiences. Let’s take a few moments out of our chaotic and crazy world to consider something, I think, is truly remarkable, something wholly good.

Tragically, our world is in a seemingly constant state of conflict where we hurt ourselves carelessly and we hurt each other in countless ways, sometimes intentionally and sometimes accidentally. But magically, we are graced with healthcare professionals who compassionately care for us and heal us frequently because we have failed to properly care for ourselves by not listening to their clear and healthy prescriptions for us.

And, we only seem to notice these heroic heroines and unheralded heroes when they are missing or hampered in their work thanks to something like an extensive fire such as the one at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital last year. The double miracle is that no one was injured in the necessary evacuation AND that the hospital is now open once more and at a vastly improved level of operations!

The last year and a half has allowed me, however, to reflect on how fortunate we are in this county and in our greater Brockton community to have such skilled and selfless agents of health and healing. If you have known me long enough, you have probably heard me tell the story of how being born blind with cataracts, a renowned eye surgeon, Dr. Roman Castroviejo, at his own expense because my family could not afford the cost of the surgery, masterfully removed those cataracts and restored my vision.

I rarely, however, tell of this embarrassing tale: A hometown doctor, whose name I never knew, stitched up my rear end when, as a teenager, I hopped over a fence and was running through a backyard where I miscalculated the length of the chain holding back a huge German Shepherd named Devil who then successfully bit the butt of this foolish intruder. Recognizing the massive insecurities and humiliation of a young juvenile who lay quivering and in pain on the examination table, the unnamed doctor never once made a joke or critical remark about the situation. He just took care of me, and I have been ever thankful.

In the same vein (pun intended) while raising our kids in the small town of Halifax, my wife and I have had the absolute blessing and pleasure of having a master nurse, Rose “Ma” Marks, as our friend and neighbor. She was always at the ready to deliver needed medical attention for any of the children on our street ranging from splinters to bloody noses to bee stings and worse.

How many times has a doctor, nurse, or administrative staff person at a local hospital or health center taken care of your medical needs efficiently, effectively, and caringly in your lifetime? In my case, so many times that I cannot remember them all. Have there been not-so-good experiences in health care for me over the years?  Sure, but for the most part, these instances have been few and far between. More frequently, my collarbone and other broken bones in my body have been mended, my hernias have been operated on and patched up, and my detached retina has been re-attached, expertly and compassionately. I have immense gratitude for the availability of this care and for the quality of this care.

One compliment I recall hearing over the years directed at caring nurses is “She’s a real Florence Nightingale!” I think that given the greater complexities of our current medical maladies and the intricacies of our advanced healthcare system, nurses should be elevated from Florence Nightingale to “SuperFlo” with some real superhero status, and the same with our doctors and all the rest of our healthcare heroes and heroines who tirelessly help and heal us!

I hope you will agree! 

And welcome back to all of the good folks at Signature Healthcare and Brockton Hospital! (And in case you may be interested in a healthcare career, check out the following link:  https://signature-healthcare.org/careers )