Writer Phyllis Theroux once said, “To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” Once in a while, we at Florida Lung Doctors, take a break from news and research, and relate a personal story, or in this case, a very special letter.
As March brings us closer to Spring, the season of renewal, and hope, it seems an appropriate time to publish a heart-warming letter honoring our own Dr. Umeh and staff here in Orlando. We also print these words to honor the memory of Mafalda Rilla Marzullo, one of the many special patients it has been our honor to treat in their last days.
Dear Dr. Umeh,
Your incredible kindness and guidance to our family at this most critical time cannot be adequately commended here. When our precious, beautiful mother, Mafalda Rilla Marzullo, passed on Sunday, 2/17 in 306, we know that the care that she received there was beyond phenomenal. You and your entire team have been blessed with those gifts in the medical arts and in human kindness to assist us in our extreme distress.
Your caring and concern for us, together with all the compassionate staff who ministered to Mom, were a brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. From the moment that day on Friday, February 15th till her last breath on Sunday, February 17th, everyone helped us to cope with this terrible loss in our family. We can attest that the quality of care was unsurpassed. I do know that I can never thank you all enough for what you did for our mother. You are all gifted professionals who minister to those of us who need your expertise, compassion and guidance at those times in our lives when we are without the ability to do so alone.
God bless and protect each and every one of you as medical staff in the hospital and in ICU and emergency medical services who are there for us at those first crucial moments of our need and continue to sustain us as we proceed through this most critical ordeal and without whose help we could not function.
Our entire family and friends here in New York have asked about your magnificent facility and we have requested them to consider making a memorial donation to Florida Hospital Celebration Health in lieu of flowers. We wish all to know that the total care of Mom and the compassionate support extended to all of us were without equal. I have compiled a list of the individual staff who were so kind in their ministrations to Mom and I will find a time to express my gratefulness to them, as well as that of my brothers, in our time of our direst need.
With my deepest gratitude and esteem –
Linda Marzullo Boeri
Letters such as this one illustrate the spirit of hope and gratitude that we find humbling. Many people send us letters such as these, and we are touched by their heartfelt expressions. We publish this one as a symbol of all the heartfelt testimonials that we cherish. Our daily experiences with patients and their families keep us constantly aware of these words, taken from the Oath of Hippocrates:
“…I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow. I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures that are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and therapeutic nihilism. I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug…”
Thank you for reading our blog, and stay tuned for our next article, when we reveal the truth behind emphasema.