TimesLeader.com

Health care personal for ‘heroes’

Twenty-four honored during award ceremony for making a difference in health care.

By Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

PLAINS TWP. – No matter how advanced medicine will become, it will always boils down to being all about the patient.

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Rachel Pugh gives her father a Health Care Hero award.

Aimee Dilger/the times leader

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Healthcare Heroes.AIMEE DILGER Photos/The Times Leader 11/5/2009

Aimee Dilger

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Health Care Heroes

2009

Robert M. D’Alessandri, M.D.

Frank A. Bucci Jr., M.D.

John F. Callahan, D.O.

William P.H. Charlton, M.D.

Deborah Granahan Clark, R.N.

Juan J. DeRojas, M.D.

Denise Rae Fried, R.N., O.C.N.

Cheryl A. Fuller, Ph.D.

Clare Gildea, L.P.N.

Carlo M. DeLuna, M.D.

David W. Kistler, M.D.

Brian J. McQuestion

Karen M. Murphy, R.N., Ph.D.

Diane O’Brien, F.N.P.

Brian O’Donnell, M.S., O.D.

Tom Pugh

Paula Ronjon, M.D.

Brian Scott Saracino, D.O.

Louis R. Sieminski, Ph.D.

William P. Smedley, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Susan Sordoni, M.D.

Linda Joanne Thomas-Hemak, M.D.

Jennifer Throop, M.S., C.V.R.T.

Susan Wehner, R.N.

That’s what Dr. David W. Kistler, a pioneer in local health care, believes and has practiced in his more than five decades of service before retiring in 2001.

“No matter what the condition is, there is an emotional and personal side to it. So, it is very, very important to have that involvement. If the patient knows that you care and they realize you are trying to get the best for them, good things happen,” said Kistler, a third-generation doctor who has delivered babies and then cared for them throughout their adult lives.

Kistler and 23 other people dedicated to making a difference in medicine – whether as a physician, nurse, administrator or cancer fundraising extraordinaire – where honored Thursday night during the first Health Care Heroes Awards ceremony at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs.

Times Leader Editor and Publisher Richard Connor, speaking via video conference, thanked the honorees “for doing so much to make this place a better city, county and area in which to live.”

Honorees were nominated by friends, colleagues or even anonymously. A Times Leader panel reviewed the numerous nominations to determine who would receive the honors in front of nearly 200 guests.

Times Leader Marketing Director Rachel Pugh presented the awards as a brief video highlighting each honoree was played. They each received an engraved art glass trophy and goodie bag filled with wine, a music CD and chocolate.

Dinner guests could show their dedication to helping others during the awards ceremony by purchasing art work from special-needs artists who participate in the Verve Vertu, an art apprenticeship studio at Arts YOUniverse.

A silent auction of several decorative gift baskets benefited the Wyoming Valley Children’s Association.

The Times Leader is the ideal host for these awards because it cannot only thank the honorees, but also highlight their unbridled dedication to serving or helping others through the medical fields, Pugh said.

“They all have tremendous stories. As a community newspaper in our area, we need to be the ones to tell the public about these people. These people who are their neighbors and their doctors and people who are giving back to the community,” Pugh said.

While it’s nice to be honored for their dedication, some say the most rewarding part is knowing they’ve made a difference in a patient’s life.

For registered nurse Deborah Granahan Clark, her patients have kept her going back to work day after day for nearly 34 years.

“All patients are special. I can’t pick out any particular one. Some touch your heart more than others, especially children, but the families and the patients are all special,” said Clark, who is an emergency department nurse manager at the Community Medical Center in Scranton.

The Times Leader will publish a special section, Health Care Heroes, on Sunday.