It’s always been clear in her community that Debbie Bain, outside her hospital positions, makes her long years of experience in healthcare available quietly and informally to her neighors. Hidden behind that observation is how deep, strong, caring and steady that contribution can be. Within the last year I became a direct beneficiary. Late one Sunday night, an especially virulent influenza swept in and proved alarmingly dangerous. My wife called Debbie, who arrived within minutes, and showed us what health care at it’s best can be -calm, informed, decisive, knowledgeable. From midnight to four o’clock in the morning, she dealth graciously with the ambulance paramedics and the ER doctors and staff, had their instant respect, and in the confusing mix of symptoms advised tactfully on likely diagnosis (she was 100% accurate). Her steady, professional and thoughtful management of a difficult, life-threatening situation led to an immediate lowering of risk factors that had included swiftly-moving developments as serious as epiglottitis and tachycardia. In a long and busy lifetime I can’t recall having seen anybody in crisis management who proved so effective, and with such quiet, positive, warmhearted flair. I am forever in her debt.
