Pastor Elwood Mather and his wife Karen are very pleased to recognize the wonderful care they received at Beebe’s South Coastal Emergency Department near Millville and at Beebe Healthcare’s Margaret H. Rollins Lewes Campus on Savannah Road.

Recently, as Elwood bent down to pet one of his two pet corgies, he felt the room beginning to spin and fell on the floor. After he experienced this vertigo for a few days, his wife Karen, a former paramedic and emergency room nurse for many years, suggested he see a doctor. The following day, they went to Beebe’s South Coastal Health Campus near their home in Bethany, expecting a lengthy wait time. They were pleasantly surprised to be seen very quickly by Dr. Joydeep Haldar. Elwood described him as “just great, terrific, very articulate and straightforward.” Elwood and Karen were also happy to learn that Dr. Haldar knew the doctor Karen presently works with as a nurse practitioner.

After Elwood’s CAT scan results came back as inconclusive, Dr. Haldar recommended that Elwood go to Beebe’s Lewes Campus.

When Elwood and Karen arrived at Beebe, Karen identified herself as a nurse practitioner and former ER nurse, and was treated very collegially. She was even allowed to accompany her husband into the exam room. “The ER nurse who administered the EKG was both professional and personable,” Elwood said. He was also sent to have an MRI for further testing. While waiting for his MRI results, the nurse said the doctor who would be taking care of Elwood is “a wonderful man who treats people the same, no matter who you are,” and after Elwood met Dr. Eric Gallagher, he agreed. Elwood found him to be very personable, and he appreciated the way Dr. Gallagher explained what was going on in a very comprehensible manner.

As a longtime history professor and Lutheran pastor, now serving at Bethany Lutheran Church in Ewing, N.J., Elwood knows the importance of good communication skills. Dr. Gallagher said he didn’t see anything concerning on the MRI, and other indicators suggested that Elwood had a benign positional vertigo condition.

Three years prior, when living in Vineland, N.J., Elwood had a syncopal event, when he passed out and fell backward down a flight of stairs. He described the care he received then from a well-known trauma hospital in southern New Jersey as “less than wonderful.”

He said there was a “quantum difference” between his experience in New Jersey and the care he received at Beebe Healthcare: “The care I received at Beebe is worthy of commendation. These guys were great! And Drs. Haldar and Gallagher are first-rate!”

As a community-based, not-for-profit healthcare system, Beebe Healthcare depends on the generous support of the community it serves. To make a gift to celebrate the excellent care you or a loved one has received, visit Beebe Medical Foundation at beebemedicalfoundation.org or call 302-644-2900. Want to share your story? Contact Amanda Neal at aneal@beebehealthcare.org.