As published in the March 2nd edition of The Inquirer and Mirror:

To the editor: I recently had surgery at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. I’d like to thank Dr. Monto and his entire staff (Jen, Meg, Tara and Keri) for easing my fear and pain and making me look on the brighter side of things. A truly awesome staff. I can’t speak highly enough of them. (more…)

Kathy Sherman, right, with NCH oncology nurse Jane Kelly

For Nantucket resident Kathy Sherman, the initial shock of her breast cancer diagnosis was followed by a deluge of information about the disease, treatment, as well as how and where to access the medical care she needed.

“People don’t know how hard this is or how much you have to go through until it happens to them,” Sherman said.

Her anxiety eased when she learned about Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s partnership with the Mass General Cancer Center, which provides island patients with oncology services, including chemotherapy, close to their homes and without the burdensome travel to the mainland.

Today, Sherman is being treated at Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s infusion clinic with chemotherapy, and has monthly appointments with MGH oncologists who travel to the island to see NCH patients.

“I can’t say enough – they’re just fabulous here,” Sherman said. “I know a couple people who’ve come down with cancer and I told them ‘why are you going to Boston? They put the same thing in you up there as they put in you here.’ With what you have to go through, it’s just easier to go home, lay down in bed and not be travelling.” (more…)

“The irony of spending hours in the ER at the Nantucket Cottage Hospital, afternoon into early evening, on the day that the island’s biggest fundraiser for the Nantucket Cottage Hospital with the Boston Pops was being held, was not lost on me.

This served to sharpen even more the critical need all of us have to have a beautifully functioning, efficient and medically competent hospital in place. For that was what my houseguest and I found Saturday afternoon. Head over handlebars on an unfamiliar bike brought my friend in, walking into the ER having trouble breathing, in pain, bearing the mark of this accident with obvious scrapes and bloody leg and arm. We had barely sat down at the first step of admittance when a nurse appeared to check vital signs and importantly, listen for signs of a collapsed lung. The wonderfully compassionate and smart admissions person had called in for immediate examination. Thankfully, no collapsed lung, so into waiting room we went. (more…)

It was a very happy Father’s Day at Nantucket Cottage Hospital for Fausto Paniagua as he celebrated the birth of his daughter Eva.

Pictured here is Eva with her mother, Hercira Montes De Oca, and Fausto over the weekend. Eva was born on Saturday, June 18th weighing 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and measuring 21 inches. Congratulations and Happy Father’s Day!

Few people are better acquainted with Nantucket Cottage Hospital from a patient’s perspective than island tile-layer and fisherman David Goodman.

Over his many years on the island, Goodman has been a patient in the Emergency Department after a cerebral hemorrhage. He’s stayed for a week on the inpatient floor suffering from liver disease. And he’s utilized the hospital’s outpatient rehabilitation services frequently for his recoveries, as well as countless visits to Dr. Tim Lepore’s primary care office.

“I got better care here than I would have got anywhere,” Goodman said. “I had incredible attention. It’s a real personal touch being here, and what I mean by that is the nurses and doctors went out of their way to take care of me. It was beyond ‘I’m just doing my job.’ and that was a big thing for me.” (more…)