- Feb 5, 2002
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I’m still waiting for the world to stop to mark the death of Dr. Michael J. Brescia. He was a founder of Calvary Hospital in New York and a trailblazer in palliative care. As best I can tell, Dr. Michael Brescia was St. Joseph living in New York. That’s something you’d think people should know about. A loving husband and father, he lived to help people, ultimately, have a happy death.
His story in medicine didn’t start out that way. He and a colleague invented a way to help patients in need of dialysis live better. He could have been a millionaire because of the innovation, but as he told the story, his Italian father dramatically told him no, and cautioned him about all the people who would die while they waited to make money off the lifesaving approach. Give it away! And so they did, publishing the protocols in the New England Journal of Medicine, saving countless lives.
I served on a pro-life commission with Brescia. And one thing he always made clear, in all our years of trying to combat efforts to bring doctor-assisted suicide to the Empire State, is that it is not necessary. Not if you have doctors like Brescia. From 1962 on, he served at what would become Calvary Hospital, a gold standard in palliative care — specifically for advanced adult cancer patients. It was fairly recently that I wondered if Brescia was ailing, because he was active until he couldn’t be, even in an emeritus position at Calvary.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
His story in medicine didn’t start out that way. He and a colleague invented a way to help patients in need of dialysis live better. He could have been a millionaire because of the innovation, but as he told the story, his Italian father dramatically told him no, and cautioned him about all the people who would die while they waited to make money off the lifesaving approach. Give it away! And so they did, publishing the protocols in the New England Journal of Medicine, saving countless lives.
I served on a pro-life commission with Brescia. And one thing he always made clear, in all our years of trying to combat efforts to bring doctor-assisted suicide to the Empire State, is that it is not necessary. Not if you have doctors like Brescia. From 1962 on, he served at what would become Calvary Hospital, a gold standard in palliative care — specifically for advanced adult cancer patients. It was fairly recently that I wondered if Brescia was ailing, because he was active until he couldn’t be, even in an emeritus position at Calvary.
Continued below.
Meet the 'St. Joseph of New York,' who helped give care to the dying
Discover the life of Dr. Michael Brescia, who was a pioneer of hospice care in New York for decades.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
