Our Heroes

"Congratulations to our 2007 Heroes"

The recipients of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation's Heroes and Hearts Award exemplify George S. Will's observation, "It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is." The nominees of this prestigious award range from police officers, firefighters, and emergency dispatchers to doctors, teachers, volunteers, and even your next-door neighbor. To be eligible, nominees must reside andor work in the city of San Francisco and must have rendered noteworthy service to an individual or the community as a whole, either through direct actionsuch as a saving a life or through a creative idea or policy that has had remarkable benefits. A selection committee comprised of San Francisco General Hospital Foundation Board Members, Foundation staff, and community members evaluates the nominees and selects the five recipients. The following people have been chosen as this year's Heroes and Hearts awardees.

Sergeant Mary Dunningan

A 25-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, Sergeant Mary Dunnigan oversees the department's Behavioral Science Unit, which in turn includes several programs vital to both the department and the city at large. The Peer Counseling Program offers trained support from fellow officers to the men and women of the Police Department who find themselves in personal or professional crisis, allowing those suffering from stress or other personal issues The Critical Incident Response Team consists of officers trained to deal with sensitive, sometimes horrific and often profoundly affecting incidents. And as the Officer in Charge of the Hostage/Crisis Negotiation Team, Sgt. Dunnigan oversees a unit of highly trained officers who respond to calls dealing with individuals who in great distress, and often threatening to hurt or kill themselves or others. Together, these programs are vital, not only to the her officers, but to all citizens of San Francisco. As Kevin Martin, Vice President of the San Francisco Police Officer's Association, wrote in his nomination, "Sgt. Mary Dunnigan is one of the true angels of the San Francisco Police Department." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Margaret Hagan

At the age of 18, our first hero, San Francisco native Margaret Hagan, underwent extensive surgery that required her to remain in the hospital for nearly a year. Those many days and nights she spent there made her realize how difficult and lonely it can be for a person recuperating in the hospital, especially if that person was without friends or family to visit and help care for them. While Margaret was lucky enough to have visitors to brighten her days, many of her fellow patients did not. Drawing from this experience, and realizing how important it is for patients to see a friendly face, Margaret decided to volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital. That was 35 years ago. Today, Margaret is still volunteering at the General, Whether it's distributing magazines and books, chatting with lonely patients, or holding drug-addicted newborn babies, Hagan is still doing her part to improve a patient's stay, with a friendly face and a smile.

Laura Mahlmeiser, RN, PhD

Laura Mahlmeister is a nationally recognized expert in the field of obstetric nursing. She has been a member of the Birth Center nursing staff at San Francisco General Hospital since 1981 and is a clinical professor of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Doctor Mahlmeister has even achieved the highest level of education in nursing, a PhD, and has published an award-winning maternity nursing textbook. She's also a contributing editor for the "Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing," and has written many papers on nursing care, risk management, and patient advocacy. She founded her own company, Mahlmeister and Associates, which conducts continuing education for nurses and physicians and provides quality improvement consulting services. Despite her success and her national recognition, Laura continues to work on staff at the Birth Center. She also lectures new staff on patient safety on a pro bono basis. And with the goal of helping to advance the professional development of her nursing colleagues, Dr. Mahlmeister contributes financially to the nursing education fund. These contributions have helped make the Birth Center at San Francisco General Hospital a world-class facility.

Pat Putney

Many glowing words were written to describe our next hero. They include "enthusiastic," "compassionate," "creative," "dedicated," "delightful," "caring," "a terrific asset," and "a first-class person." As an Occupational Therapist with Health at Home, Pat Putney serves patients whose physical, psychological or debilitating conditions keep them homebound. But Pat doesn't just work within the system. Pat routinely goes above and beyond the call of duty, simply to ensure that her clients are receiving what they need. She established a relationship with Equipment Recyclers to obtain donated Medical Equipment for patients without the funds or the insurance to cover the costs. She taught a retired chef whose only means of cooking was a hot pot how to cook healthy meals. She enlisted an engineer and carpenter to design and build a bed capable of holding one obese patient, who previously was forced to sleep on the floor. She not only got a hospital bed donated to one patient but she even hired and truck and movers to get it there. She has organized clothing drives for obese clients who would otherwise have difficulty obtaining large-sized clothing. When that wasn't enough, Pat purchased fabric and made the clothing herself. Through her work, and her kind, compassionate acts, Pat empowers her clients and helps remove the obstacles they face every day. She helps them maintain their independence and gives them the tools they need to live with dignity. And she does all of this with a great sense of humor and with, as one of her nominators said, a "heart of gold."

Captain Niels Tangherlini

As a San Francisco Fire Department Paramedic, Niels Tangherlini saw that the system was broken. Like many of his colleagues, much of Niels' time on duty was spent dealing with frequent users of 911 the high risk, high need population of homeless, mentally ill, substance addicted, elderly and poor who often use emergency services to receive regular medical care, to have a place to sleep or to get a meal. Captain Tangherlini saw the burden this was putting on the system and decided to do something about it. Niels created the Homeless Outreach and Medical Emergency Team also known as the "HOME Team" to deliver comprehensive social services and medical treatment to frequent 911 users. He got three of the city's major social service agencies to cooperate to keep better track of this population and their needs. He also created and maintains a list of frequent 911 callers that all case managers and ER doctors can access, providing physicians and social workers quick access to records to expedite their care. Through this work, Captain Niels Tangherlini has helped reduce emergency room overcrowding and 911 call volume and, by some estimates, saves the City of San Francisco millions a year. His success has been noticed by cities such as Boston, San Diego and Memphis, all of whom have contacted him to learn how to apply his programs to their cities.

2007 SPECIAL HERO AWARD

This award honors an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to the SFGH or Foundation

William P. Schecter, MD,

Chief of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center (SFGH)

Dr. Schechter's long history with SFGH began in 1972, when he completed a rotating internship at the hospital. In addition to his duties as SFGH's Chief of Surgery, a position he's held since 1992, Dr. Schechter is Professor of Clinical Surgery and Vice-Chair of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He serves or has served on the boards of many professional organizations, including the Pacific Coast Surgical Association, American College of Surgeons, and American Board of Surgery, on which he currently serves as a Director. His medical career has included stints in American Samoa, South Africa, and Israel, where as recently as summer of 2006, Dr. Schechter volunteered in a hospital in Safed, Israel, performing trauma surgery on war victims. A tireless advocate of accessible, quality health care, Bill is a co-founder of Operation Access (OA) and was awarded the "Pride in the Profession Award" by the American Medical Association in 2006. Created in 1993, OA is a non-profit organization that mobilizes a network of over 300 medical volunteers, 17 hospitals and 60 referring community clinics to provide donated surgeries and procedures to the uninsured. Through OA and its network of providers, uninsured individuals are not only able to significantly improve their health, but improve their ability to work and their quality of life as well. According to Dr. Schechter, prior to the establishment of OA, "it was easier for doctors to go to Guatemala or Southeast Asia to provide free surgical services to the needy than in their own communities."