Winchester Hospital News

The outpouring of support for community hospitals has been remarkable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cummings Foundation, a longtime supporter of Winchester Hospital, has made a gift of $100,000 to support the hospital’s Healthcare Heroes Fund. This is the largest gift the hospital has received for the fund. 

Working in the Emergency Department, Teri Ciccone, MD, has come to expect the unexpected. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, knowing what’s coming, but not knowing when, is the hard part. “When these sick people come in, they’re really sick and it’s really scary,” Dr. Ciccone said. 

Walking into the Emergency Department at Winchester Hospital, Virginia Fitzgerald was terrified that she wouldn’t walk out or return to her home. The 82-year-old mother, grandmother and great-grandmother from Melrose was showing symptoms of COVID-19 and later tested positive. She knew from watching the news that her age put her at higher risk.

Businesses around the country have been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak. With Easter services and other events getting canceled, Heimlich’s Nurseries in Woburn wasn’t going to let its holiday supply of tulips and daffodils go to waste. Instead, they chose to brighten the days of the frontline caregivers and patients at Winchester Hospital.

The daily COVID-19 headlines about hospitals being stretched financially were troubling one member of the Winton Club, a philanthropic group of women whose mission is to support Winchester Hospital. So she reached out to Margaret Bertochi, the club’s president, and asked if they could make their annual donation to Winchester Hospital earlier than planned.

Winchester Hospital has set up the President’s Emergency Relief Fund, which provides immediate resources to our nurses, physicians and hospital leaders to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how your donation will be used to keep our community safe.  

At Winchester Hospital, some funds from the 5K are deposited into the Heidbreder Fund, also known as the Patient Comfort Fund. This fund is named for Richard Heidbreder, MD, Winchester’s former medical director of radiation oncology and is an important way the staff helps care for the whole patient, said Nurse Manager Sue Sheehan, RN, MS, OCN. About $3,000 in gift cards are distributed each month to patients in need.

As the spotlights lit up the stage at Winchester Town Hall, you could tell that Margaret Bertochi, Gayle O’Grady and Phyllis Gleason were proud as they took the stage — proud of the show 400 people were about to watch, and proud of the hours they and hundreds of volunteers devoted to it for the entire month of January. The Winton Club Cabaret, in its 100th year, is always a spectacle that raises funds for important programs at Winchester Hospital.