While probably no one considers an unexpected surgery to be a stroke of good fortune, I’m sure that I am not the first to consider that it was a stroke of great fortune to be treated at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I suffered what might be described as a complicated appendectomy and as it turned out, one in which quick assessment and skilled treatment would prove very important to a good outcome. I was seen immediately at the ER, and within only a few hours had been fully assessed, imaged and operated upon — in my case, by Dr. Richard Koehler, one of the finest surgeons and physicians I’ve ever met. It’s simply not possible to say enough in praise of Dr. Koehler’s attentiveness, responsiveness, accessibility for follow up issues and questions, let alone the technical aspects of the surgery itself. His associate Dr. Peter Pil was similarly superb during Dr. Koehler’s time away.

In addition to the quality of its clinicians and surgeons, a hospital also depends upon its nursing staff to provide the complete environment for patient treatment and recovery. The nurses I encountered were uniformly skilled, caring and highly professional and did much to make my recovery easier.

Having had a few experiences with the emergency room at large, tertiary care hospitals, I’m immensely grateful that my need for treatment occurred while on the Vineyard and not elsewhere. I doubt that I would have been treated as quickly as I was at MVH and I could not have been treated more expertly, and for me, that made all the difference.

Count me as another person with one more gem on his list of the Vineyard’s many charms.

Richard Brudnick
Chilmark