09/06/2023
Pictured Joan Kennedy Goldman (center) with her two children.
Although she has spent over 50 years between both New York City and Westport, Connecticut, Joan Kennedy Goldman wasn’t familiar with Nuvance Health’s Norwalk Hospital. Like most people, visiting an emergency room was one of the last things on her mind. But after she was rushed to the Bauer Emergency Care Center at Norwalk Hospital twice in just a few months, it became clear to the octogenarian former merchandising consultant there was so much more to the care she was receiving.
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“Astute. In terms of reading me as a patient, my doctor immediately got a grip of who I was and how to treat me,” Joan recalled the conversation she had with Norwalk Hospital emergency medicine physician Dr. Timothy Shub, who treated her during her first visit.
Joan said she was impressed with the care she received and the professionalism of Dr. Shub and the emergency department staff from the moment she entered Norwalk Hospital.
“The things Dr. Shub said he was going to do were timely; the staff who took my vitals were impeccable and very pleasant. I would have hired all of them,” Joan laughed.
Joan was especially impressed with how fast everything seemed to move during her visit at Norwalk Hospital. After receiving a CT scan and some medication, she was cleared to go home.
“I’m sort of a timely person, and when there is illness, you have to really think quickly,” Joan reflected.
She walked out that night with a positive feeling. She knew she was going to be OK, but she also knew she had a care team she could depend on waiting for her at Norwalk Hospital.
A few months later, Joan was getting ready to start her day when she took a bad fall. She leads a very active lifestyle and so she wasn’t going to let it keep her down. Luckily, someone was with Joan, and they called 911. She was brought to Norwalk Hospital, and on the drive over in the ambulance, she remembered the doctor who had treated her during her previous visit.
“Doctor Timothy! I want to see Doctor Timothy!” she excitedly told the staff members inside the ambulance as they paged emergency personnel at Norwalk Hospital to find him. The EMS staff hooked Joan up to oxygen and fitted her with a neck brace as precautions, but still looked puzzled as they tried to put a face to Dr. Timothy’s name.
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As the ambulance pulled into the parking lot, Joan was taken inside Norwalk Hospital’s Bauer Emergency Care Center. She could not help but think of how fast and efficient the EMS team worked to care for her during her ride. Once inside, Joan again asked nursing staff where Dr. Timothy was. But she admitted she could not remember his last name. No one in the emergency department appeared to recognize the name because no one called Dr. Shub by his first name. For the moment, it appeared Dr. Timothy’s whereabouts were unknown.
But just as Joan said his name aloud, “Timothy, Dr. Timothy,” Dr. Shub was walking down the hall and heard her calling his first name. As he turned the corner, he saw Joan. The woman he had treated months prior was back again. Both Joan and Dr. Shub burst into laughter at the sight of one another.
“Once again, everything moved so timely. It was precision. I was overwhelmed by the synchronization of everyone working in the emergency department,” she said.
Joan was OK and released after a short visit. She said she is grateful for the staff at Nuvance Health. After living between both New York City and Westport, Connecticut, for over 50 years, she finally feels like she knows the staff at Norwalk Hospital very well.