January 12,2010
Ray Hino
Administration
Mendocino Coast District Hospital
Dear Ray,
Happy New Year and best wishes from Jackie, Emily and 1.
We would like to share an experience we recently had that included the hospital and some of your staff. About a week before Christmas we got a call from the school nurse @ Redwood Elementary where our daughter Emily is enrolled concerned that she appeared to have something in her left eye.
We made an appointment with Emily’s pediatrician that day and took her in after school. The Doctor confirmed that there was something in her eye but could not flush it out. We were then fortunate enough that Dr. Kline could see her that same day but were also unsuccessful in removing the object.
Next Dr. Fleming
Our next move was to see Dr. Fleming the following day and we did so after school the next day. We were hopeful that this visit might be successful. Unfortunately it was not. Dr. Fleming was able to remove a small piece of metal but it had left a rust ring that needed to be removed. The procedure at Dr. Flemings office had been difficult on all of us especially Emily and Dr. Fleming told us the only way he would be able to perform the procedure would be under general anesthesia.
As you may know Emily has been diagnosed on the autistic spectrum and we were extremely worried about using anesthesia on her. We were all extremely nervous as we had done some research and had read stories about adverse effects from anesthesia.
We put in a call to the anesthesia department and received a call back from Phil Conwell. He spent a fair amount of time talking to us and more importantly to us listening to us. We left the conversation feeling as good as we could under the circumstances.
Arrived at the Hospital Early
We arrived at the hospital early Tuesday morning dreading the day ahead. We were greeted by Beth Ward a familiar face which made us feel a little better. She was cheerful, focused and probably most important to us patient. Eventually Phil Conwell arrived and he also was patient and listened to some additional concerns we had. When it was time to begin I was allowed to give Emily some oral sedative which we have used before for lab work which calmed her and made Jackie and I feel better as we felt listened to.
They then took Emily into the operating room and performed her procedure. About 40 minutes later Dr. Fleming came out to let us know everything had gone well and one of us would be able to go into recovery shortly to be with her. Beth came out and took Jackie back to be with Emily while she woke up. Everything went fine.
All Went Well and Thank you
The point of this letter is to thank you and all the staff that participated in Emily’s procedure. Dr. Fleming, Phil Conwell, Beth Ward, Brad and Kathy (We apologize if we missed anyone) were all great. We started out having one of the worst Christmas
Holidays we can remember and it ended up being one of the best. We can’t think of a better gift than Emily’s health.
I hope you will share this with your staff along with our thanks for a job well done. I doubt we would have been treated as well elsewhere and we can’t express how much this meant to us.
Thank You and all involved
Jerry, Jackie and Emily Matson