A system of care

Juliet and Dick Moynihan’s reasons for giving are simple. They both see it as the right thing to do. They are especially passionate about supporting health care. Dick a retired chemical engineering graduate from Northeastern University in Boston, knows that regular giving, even when it’s modest, can ultimately have a big impact.

The two have deeply personal reasons for supporting St. Luke’s Health specifically. Both Juliet and Dick have had care at multiple hospitals across the system, and the two credit those institutions and Dick’s cardiologist, Dr. Vincent Aquino, with saving his life more than once.

Dick’s heart problems first manifested in 1993 at age 58. He was returning his rental car to the airport in West Palm Beach, FL, when the counter clerk noticed that he appeared to be ill. The EMTs were called, resulting in Dick being hospitalized. A week later, he was cleared to fly to Houston. Upon arrival he was immediately transported from the airport to Dr. Aquino’s office. The myocardial infarction diagnosis led to treatment with medication.

Years later, in 2008, Dick underwent a heart catheterization which led to triple bypass surgery at The Woodlands Hospital. In 2015 the youth soccer referee and avid baseball fan was at an Astros game with one of his sons when he began to feel ill. A Minute Maid Park nurse evaluated him and suggested he go to a hospital.

“I wanted to go to The Woodlands and she said ‘I would not go that far,’ ” Dick recalls laughingly. The ambulance took him to Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, where the ER team and Dr. Guilherme Silva were able to easily access his past medical history and determine that multiple stents were required.

“He’s had some marvelous heart doctors throughout the system,” Juliet notes.

More recently, Dick received a pacemaker at St. Luke’s Health –The Vintage Hospital after a series of fainting episodes ultimately sent him via ambulance to the facility. His care team doggedly searched for the cause of his symptoms. His EKG was repeatedly normal, and he was scheduled for discharge when a sharp-eyed nurse noticed an episode that resulted in an emergency surgical procedure to implant the pacemaker.

“Finally, something showed on the monitor,” Juliet says.

Juliet has had her own positive experiences with St. Luke’s Health, including several diagnostic MRIs that led to successful lower back surgery at The Vintage Hospital and more recently, the implantation of a LINQ heart monitor at Lakeside Hospital after a cardiac incident at home.

Juliet and Dick have been regular donors to St. Luke’s for a decade, and they encourage everyone to follow their example.

“We are by no means millionaires, but we try to give to places that have helped us and by doing so, maybe, we have helped to solve some problems,” Dick says “Partially by my having a science background and knowing the importance of education and research, I would encourage others by saying: If you have dollars to give, and you have no idea where to give, give to a hospital.”