Valley cardiac care gets boost from legacy gift
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| Dr. Joseph C. Woo Jr. |
Retired physician Dr. Joseph C. Woo, Jr. said he’s overwhelmed that a memorial gift benefitting Community’s cardiac programs is being named in his honor. Though Dr. Woo historically has been one of Community Medical Foundation’s most generous donor-investors, this particular gift didn’t come from him. The $115,790 gift came from the estate of Dr. William F. Stein and his wife Esther Elizabeth Stein.
Dr. Stein is the man who delivered Dr. Woo in 1924 and mentored him to become a doctor. Later, the late Dr. Stein and his wife became patients of Dr. Woo.
Dr. Woo was born in the Burnett Sanitarium, the turn-of-the-century infirmary that would become Fresno Community Hospital and today has grown into the 626-bed Community Regional Medical Center, the flagship hospital of central California’s largest health care system.
Dr. Woo had a natural inclination towards medicine and feels fortunate to have had others helping him along the way. “Dr. Stein was the one who encouraged me to go to medical school,” he said. “Ever since I was a child, Dr. Stein was one of my inspirations. After he delivered me, he would come by my house to visit my parents and see how I was doing.”
The honoree has vivid and fond memories of being a patient of Dr. Stein’s, as well as later turning the stethoscope around to deliver services to his mentor. He was always impressed by his mentor’s professionalism. “As a child, I remember Dr. Stein always wore a suit and tie, he always looked nice. I remember him shaking my hand.”
Was Dr. Stein a good patient? “Oh yes,” Dr. Woo said. “He and his wife were very good patients. I made house calls to them, just like he did for me when I was a youngster. He treated me just like he used to treat his own patients. He wouldn’t call me Junior or anything like that; he always called me Dr. Woo. His main impression on me is he treated me the patient, the person, not the symptoms or disease. He saw me as a person. That is the feeling most physicians should have.”
Dr. Woo has a long history of providing cardiac services to the local community. He started the first coronary care unit in the San Joaquin Valley in 1964, housed at then-Fresno Community Hospital. It was the fourth in California and 15th in the nation.
Today, Community Regional boasts a 50-bed dedicated cardiac unit that opened in May 2008 featuring rooms with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, specialty beds that extend to patient height, private rooms with negative air-flow, plasma flat-screen TVs and showers with easy fold-down seating.
Just like his mentor, Dr. Woo believes in planned giving, leaving a legacy. “I think that giving has to come from an individual’s heart. It is an instilled spirit. People should give back what they can to any organization that has contributed to their well-being.”
Robert V. Saroyan, vice president of Community’s Foundation, says this gift shows others how they can make a difference. “Dr. Stein’s contribution is an example for others. They could follow Dr. Stein’s lead and remember to leave a legacy too. His gift is even more special because of his desire to honor a former patient he inspired to become a physician and the man who later became his own doctor. It truly is a Hollywood ending.”
To learn more about how or somebody you know could leave a legacy through a planned deferred gift, please contact the Foundation department at 459-2670 or click here to visit the Foundation Web site.
This story was reported by Bonni Montevecchi. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@communitymedical.org.