The recent 2016 Fairfield County Doctors of Distinction awards was a heartfelt evening honoring medical professionals from throughout the region for their tireless efforts and dedication to the communities and patients they serve.
“Doctors are not recognized enough,” said Dee Delbello, publisher of the family of publications under the Westfair Communications banner including the Fairfield and Westchester County Business Journals and WAG magazine.
“They are vital and important to our lives, they impact everybody”™s life every single day yet they receive such little recognition,” she said.
The annual award ceremony, hosted by the Waveny LifeCare Network in new Canaan and co-founded by Westfair and the New York City-based accounting and consulting firm Citrin Cooperman, was filled with inspiring an captivating speeches from ten award recipients, said John P. Bryan, CPA, a partner with Citrin and co-leader of the organization”™s health care practice.
“In many respects the achievements of these physicians have impacted lives not only in the county, but perhaps even across the globe. They represent the unique character of our Fairfield community ”” excellence coupled with compassion and hard work matched by generosity,” said Bryan. “It was an honor to be a part of the Fairfield Doctors of Distinction awards to celebrate those physicians who have gone above and beyond, and who have committed their lives to the practice of medicine.”
Keynote speaker Jeremy Richman, a Ph.D. in neuropharmacology as well as co-founder and CEO of the Avielle Foundation, set the tone for the evening with opening comments focused on the importance of being passionate about one”™s career.
“It”™s what you do not who you are that matters,” he said. “It is so important to highlight the value of letting things touch you to your heart in your endeavors. We become involved when we let things touch us to the core.”
After the loss of his daughter, Avielle Rose Richman along with 25 other children and educators at the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Richman and his wife Jennifer Hensel (also a foundation co-founder) have dedicated their foundation to pursuing neuroscience research to stem violence in communities.
Among the medical professionals recognized were doctors Noel I. Robin, chair of medicine at Stamford Hospital since 1973 and Francis X. Walsh, medical director at Greenwich Hospital, the Nathaniel Witherall nursing center and The Mews assisted living center, both in Greenwich.
“You have to love what you do in order to keep doing it for so long and enjoy it the whole time,” said Walsh, a member of the medical staff at Witherall for more than 40 years.
Throughout all awardee speeches a consistent theme of profound appreciation for the mentors and patients who provide inspiration and motivation was present.
Recipient of the “No Land Too Far” award for his international charitable work providing medical services to impoverished regions with little or no medical support, Dr. Albert DiMeo, chief of robotic and minimally invasive cardiothoracic surgery at St. Vincent”™s Medical Center in Bridgeport spoke of the impact that his international patients have had on his practice.
“Sometimes people wait literally for months in the hospital for an operation or make their way from the rice paddies in Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City sleeping on the floor of a hospital for weeks at a time just to get an office appointment,” DiMeo said. “The stoicism, bravery, gratitude and patience of the kind of people I had an opportunity to operate on is a great privilege for any doctor to interact with.”
From life changing impacts to subtle comforts, interactions with patients were at the heart of each doctor”™s passion for their profession.
“The humanistic aspect of medicine ”“ the one that we sometimes forget, that is the real joy for me,” said Zane Saul, chief of infectious diseases at Bridgeport Hospital and recipient of the “Caring for All” award for philanthropic dedication to patients and causes.
“A little old lady with dementia just wanted to hold my hand the other day ”” it was just incredibly gratifying,” he said. “These are the relationships that keep us going and that make me happy every day.”
Many doctors honored the mentors and loved ones who have inspired and supported them throughout their careers, including the recipient of the “Female Trailblazer” award Dr. Romelle Maloney, an OB/GYN specialist and attending physician at Greenwich Hospital and Northeast Medical Group.
Maloney, the granddaughter of African American landowners during Mississippi”™s Jim Crow era, honored her grandmother for her progressive thinking and determination to see her children succeed.
“She dared to believe that five of her children, four of whom were females, should be college educated,” Maloney said. “In the early 20th century in the racially segregated south most blacks that went to school achieved less than a fourth grade education. Statistics were even worse for African America girls; despite the odds four of her children received a college education.”
“My grandmother and mother are the true trailblazers,” she said.
Co-sponsored by a collection of organizations and businesses, including the law office of Danzinger & Markhoff LLP, the Quinnipiac University Frank H. Netter School of Medicine, St. Vincent”™s Medical Center, Yale New Haven Health and Val”™s Putnam Wines & Liquors, the event also honored the following individuals for their commitment to the medical profession.
Kyle Bilodeau, a student at Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, Quinnipiac University, Promise for the Future award;
Paul Sethi, Orthopaedic and Neurosurgery Specialists PC, Cutting Edge award;
Craig and Linda Werner, NorthEast Medical Group/Endocrine Associates, All in the Family award; and
Stephen Winter, AmeriCares Free Clinics, Caring for All award.
“It was an incredibly inspiring event,” said the event”™s master of ceremonies Bruce Koeppen, dean of the Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac. “These physicians give so much of themselves in the communities they work in and with their patients, and as we saw with some of the awardees, really around the world.”
