To the Editor:
This is a long-overdue thank-you letter. On May 26, last year, I started to throw up blood — a lot of it. My wife, Kandace, took me to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital emergency room, where the doctor said that the only thing worse than what I had “was a heart attack,” and further, that I had to go to Massachusetts General.
It was late. No boats. No medflights. The nurses gave me as much blood of my type as they had. The doctor in charge said he would arrange for the Coast Guard to pick me up. The hospital’s staff parked their cars with the lights on around the helipad to help the Coast Guard helicopter land. As we approached Boston, the Coast Guard man said that the lights in Boston looked cool coming in, and he held me up so that I could see them.
How can I thank all of you? So many people helped me. I will start by thanking God, my wife Kandace, the excellent nurses and staff at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Oak Bluffs EMTs. Thanks to the nurses and staff at Massachusetts General, a place you don’t leave unless you are fixed or dead.
Most of the people who helped me didn’t know who I was, and perhaps will never see me again, and yet exhibited so much kindness and compassion.
Thank you all for my life.
Charlie Mead
Oak Bluffs
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