st. mary's hospital heroes inspire $25,000 christmas fund gift
gazette reader ron vincelli was moved to donate by a column about a team of nurses and doctors who volunteered at the herron residence in the pandemic’s early days.
4 minute read
reader ron vincelli has kept a copy of the oct. 4 print edition of the gazette, with its front-page photo of the team at st. mary’s hospital that inspired his donation. “to me, they are heroes — and i am really pleased to try to acknowledge them,” vincelli said.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
so moved was reader ron vincelli by a recent column in the gazette describing the courage and dedication of a group of st. mary’s hospital nurses and doctors who volunteered early in the pandemic at a seniors’ facility ravaged by an outbreak of covid-19 that he decided to donate $25,000 to the paper’s christmas fund in their honour. thirty-one residents of the 137-bed herron residence, a private long-term care centre in dorval, died between late march and mid-april of 2020; those five st. mary’s nurses and doctors, who volunteered to go and work in the facility in early april after working their own regular shifts at st. mary’s, found bedridden survivors dehydrated and unfed, lying in their own urine and excrement.
virtually the entire herron staff had left the facility en masse, either because they had covid or had been advised to isolate or else found working conditions too difficult. the horrific story was first reported by the gazette’s aaron derfel on april 10, 2020.
“i could barely believe what i was reading,” dr. julia chabot told gazette columnist bill brownstein, who wrote the column that so affected vincelli. the young mother of two headed to the herron the following day. “i just felt i had to help out.”
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“nothing i had ever seen before prepared me for what i saw,” she told brownstein. realizing she needed help, she called on colleagues at st. mary’s “and they came out, no questions asked.”
“after my day shift ended at the hospital, i just took off for herron,” st. mary’s nurse lea anne hogan told brownstein. “people were so sick. there was no staff. no equipment. we knew nothing, really, about covid then. no matter. i didn’t think twice … i had to do this.”
“i didn’t know exactly how bad it was until i got there,” recalled st. mary’s nurse mary-lou foley. “it was just sheer devastation. we had run out of gloves and equipment. all the patients were dehydrated. we couldn’t find their charts. we didn’t know where their meds were. and the place had next to no staff … we had to start from scratch, taking care of people we didn’t know who were in critical condition and for whom we had no background.”
observed vincelli: “these wonderful people at st. mary’s hospital ran in to help people who needed help. i think of what they did and i think that it was pretty heroic: to me, they are heroes — and i am really pleased to try to acknowledge them.”
the nurses and doctors at st. mary’s hospital who volunteered to go to the herron residence in the pandemic’s early days: seated, from left: lea anne hogan, mary-lou foley and julia chabot; standing, rear: bruce campbell and rosetta antonacci.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
of course many more health-care providers, from st. mary’s and elsewhere, did their part during the pandemic — at herron and in other facilities. but those who pitched in at the outset, when so little was known about the virus and when no vaccine was yet available, showed great courage in addition to dedication and compassion, he said.
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the group of five, deeply affected by their experience, came together recently at the hospital, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary, to talk to brownstein about it.
“we’ve all seen our share of trauma over the years, but never like this,” said hogan.
to foley, working at the herron “was the hardest thing i’ve ever done.”
brownstein’s column appeared in the gazette on oct. 4, accompanied by a front-page photograph of the five — three nurses and two doctors. vincelli kept a copy and was photographed at home this week with the paper and with jack, the eldest of his four children. best known as a landscaping contractor, ron vincelli is also a longtime real-estate developer. two of his four children work with him: jack, a lawyer, and chris, an architect.
vincelli is donating $25,000 to the gazette christmas fund on behalf of the ronald and carmela vincelli family foundation in recognition of those five st. mary’s nurses and doctors — and in memory of his beloved wife, carmela vincelli (née iuticone), who died in july of 2022. they had been married just shy of 60 years.
ron vincelli in his westmount home with jack, the eldest of his four children. on the table is the oct. 4 edition of the gazette that contained the column about the st. mary’s staffers who volunteered at the herron residence in 2020.
john mahoney
/
montreal gazette
vincelli has had his own interaction with st. mary’s. for more than 30 years, he has been a patient at the hospital, where he is being treated for an immune disorder in which blood doesn’t clot normally, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura: he requires regular blood transfusions.
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his children had given him an ipad to use during treatments and, when he was unable to get online, he assumed that he was doing something wrong — until staff members told him the hospital had no public wi-fi. he changed that, with a donation that helped pay for the installation of free public wi-fi at the lacombe ave. hospital.
vincelli said he wanted to give back to staff who have helped him over the years, particularly the staff of the cancer care unit and jennifer wilson, the unit’s assistant head nurse. “the staff puts a smile on the patients’ faces,” he said.
it is his profound hope, said vincelli, that his gift to the gazette christmas fund will encourage others to get involved and contribute as well.
gifts to the christmas fund range from a few dollars to thousands. they come from foundations, businesses and bequests, but the great majority are from individuals: since it was established in 1967 by gazette municipal reporter bob hayes, the christmas fund has raised more than $27 million and last year distributed $125 cheques to 6,370 montrealers in need.
“imagine if we all helped,” vincelli said.
“it would be a wonderful world.”
how to help
to donate to the gazette christmas fund, visit christmasfund.com. read more christmas fund stories here.
