Danbury Hospital Celebrates

National Physicians Appreciation Day

DANBURY — March 30 was National Doctor’s Day, a celebration to recognize the unique role physicians play in the lives of Danbury area residents.

Danbury Hospital celebrated its first annual Physicians Appreciation Day, joining with health-care organizations around the country, to honor members of its medical staff. March 30 was selected because on this day in 1842, ether anesthesia was first used by Georgian surgeon Crawford Long, MD, to remove a tumor from a patient’s neck.

Doctor’s Day was first celebrated in 1933, by the Barrow Country Medical Auxiliary in Georgia, and was officially recognized by the US Congress in 1958. In 1990, President George Bush signed into law a bill that designated March 30 as National Doctor’s Day.

The Danbury Hospital celebration was sponsored by the Senior Physicians Group, a group of physicians who have had a long association with the hospital. The group includes eight doctors and is chaired by Newtown resident Robert S. Grossman, MD, former president of the medical staff.

“It’s our pleasure to sponsor Danbury Hospital’s First Annual Physicians Appreciation Day,” said Dr Grossman. “The work that our medical staff does each day helps distinguish the great standards of care at Danbury Hospital.”

As part of the celebration, retired members of the medical staff and their spouses were invited to a special luncheon and clinical education program about the hospital’s new vascular services, presented by Patrick Malloy, MD, chairman of the Department of Radiology, and Alan Dietzek, MD, chief of vascular surgery in the Department of Surgery. The luncheon was the first event to take place in the Fitzgerald/Merrill Lynch Courtyard of the Praxair Cancer Center, giving the retired physicians an opportunity to see the new facility.