Nantucket Cottage Hospital is not only an integral part of the island community, but it is an equally integral part of our family as well. As a family of six, we have frequented the ER for stitches, fevers and other mishaps that accompany a family with four boys, always receiving attentive and comprehensive care. But the hospital hasn’t just been there for our family during tragic events or unfortunate circumstances. It has served as the “home away from home” where we gave birth and welcomed three of our four children into the world, most recently our son Charles on January 10, 2020. It is these life changing moments for which we feel forever connected and grateful to our community hospital.

While nothing can fully prepare a family for the life changing experience that bringing a new baby into the world will be, the process can be a positive one or not. Our experience, most recently, was nothing short of perfect.

We had a pretty good idea of what to expect, this being our third child in three years. What we could not have planned for however, was the tremendous care our family received by the nursing staff and just how much they would contribute to our overall experience.

We arrived on a Friday morning and were warmly welcomed. It felt as though the whole nursing staff was anticipating our arrival, ready and eager to get the process started. How grateful we were to have such individualized attention, knowing that is not the norm in most all other hospitals. They embraced our desire for a holistic, natural birth. Whether through maintaining the set environment through dimmed lighting and quiet music, or providing birthing balls at various stages or encouraging walking the halls and trying new laboring positions. They respected our wishes the entire way.

– Kathleen and Isaiah Stover with their kids Gabe, J.J., Xander and Finn

On July 8, 2017, as we were celebrating our son’s 3rd birthday, a freak accident resulted in head trauma and left him non-responsive with his eyes rolled back in his head. Due to our proximity to the hospital, we decided not to wait for 911 to come to us and we got to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department before its staff could be notified of our arrival.

With no warning we burst in with an undoubtedly overwhelming situation and put our son’s life and family’s future in the hands of strangers. The flurry of activity that surrounded our son was terrifying at the time, but we can now look back on it in a different light.

The professionalism and expert care that he received is something the Nantucket Cottage Hospital staff should be extremely proud of. Not only was the medical care our son received critical to saving his life, but the kindness and support we received as parents was incredible. Beyond that care and comfort, the NCH staff was also exemplary in communicating and coordinating the complex logistics of a transfer by Coast Guard helicopter to Boston Children’s Hospital for emergency brain surgery.

Explaining to us what was going on, handling and explaining the dynamic travel situation to us, and just the overall focus of everyone on protecting my family is something we greatly appreciate. It took two ambulance rides and a Coast Guard helicopter to get our son, myself and my wife, who was eight-months pregnant, to Boston Children’s Hospital, where our son would need lifesaving surgery to relieve the swelling on his brain. We are extremely grateful to Nantucket firefighters Jeff Allen, Chris Holland and Scott Holmes for the safe transport to the waiting Coast Guard helicopter at Nantucket Memorial Airport. With serious thunderstorms throughout the area, Lt. Bill Burwell, Lt. Steven Podmore, AET3 Dan Cote and Petty Officer First Class Justin Munk came to our rescue and got us safely to Boston when we had no other options. The call these men answered that day leaves us forever grateful.

During this ordeal we watched Nantucket Cottage Hospital nurses Courtney Bucholz, Dani Brunelle and (CRNA) Peter Duquette work tirelessly to keep my son stable. We will never forget watching Courtney literally breathing the life into him and Dani’s intense focus on his vitals and well-being. As we were told by our son’s neurosurgeon in Boston, it was the immediate actions by the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department team that were critical in saving his life and amazingly avoiding any long-term brain damage.

To the incredible staff at Boston Children’s and the entire trauma, ICU and neurology teams that helped us and kept us informed during this terrifying time, we cannot thank you enough for your hard work, especially Dr. Scellig Stone and his entire neurology team for their lifesaving effort. Boston Children’s Hospital is an amazing place filled with amazing people that I hope to never visit again, but am more than lucky to know that it is there.

To use the word lifesaving is not solely referring to the life of my son, but the lives of myself, wife, daughter and entire extended family. The tragedy that these people helped us avoid that day is something that is hard to think about, and has even more so enforced the ideal of how special every day with the people you care about is. We would like to thank everyone who helped us that day for every decision they made in their lives that led them to cross our path that day.

We are forever grateful and know that every smile, laugh and special moment from here on is due to the efforts of the many people who worked together to care for our son on that day.

– Ryan and Cara Scotto

OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, January 5, 2019 | 12:00 noon – 2:00 p.m. | 57 Prospect Street, Nantucket

Nantucket Cottage Hospital is preparing to open the doors of our new hospital following the largest community fundraising campaign in island history. We want to offer you a sneak peek of the new hospital before it opens for patient care to see the incredible results of this effort.

Please park in the new Emergency Department parking area off Prospect Street. Once full, please utilize the main hospital parking lot. You will be directed to the appropriate entrance for the new hospital. Light refreshments will be served.

“It may look like its humble neighbors, but the hospital is built to meet the comprehensive building code of Miami-Dade County, one of the most hurricane-battered regions of the world. There is no basement. Walls are double-hulled; many low-level surfaces cast from concrete; and windows are designated blast-resistant and designed to resist strong winds and swirling debris. And, wherever possible, there is redundancy.”

Nantucket Cottage Hospital is featured in Popular Science magazine with a focus on the hurricane resiliency of the new hospital. Read the full story by clicking here.

Every year, the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Foundation publishes its annual Report to Our Donors to celebrate, highlight, and thank our donors and volunteers. This report is filled with the names of people who recognize that life as we know it on Nantucket wouldn’t be the same without a hospital that meets the needs of a thriving year-round community. It’s one of the ways we acknowledge the hundreds of men, women and children who generously share with us their talents and treasures as volunteers, donors and staff. Read the full report.