A Lasting Love - Daniel & Mary’s Story

For 42 years, Daniel and Mary G. have been part­ners in life, shar­ing count­less mem­o­ries, from hik­ing the Grand Canyon to whale watch­ing. Their trav­els across the coun­try have only strength­ened their bond. But recent­ly, their jour­ney took an unex­pect­ed and fright­en­ing turn.

While hik­ing with their dog one day, Mary sud­den­ly expe­ri­enced severe abdom­i­nal pain. ​“I’ve nev­er seen any­one in that much pain,” Daniel recalled. ​“It was heart­break­ing to watch her suf­fer.” They rushed to the emer­gency room at a hos­pi­tal they believed to be rep­utable, but the care they encoun­tered left them shak­en. With­out com­pre­hen­sive test­ing, the doc­tor deliv­ered dev­as­tat­ing news. 

“The doc­tor just turned to me and said, ​‘Your wife prob­a­bly has ovar­i­an can­cer,’” Daniel said. ​“He said it like it was noth­ing, with­out any con­cern or com­pas­sion. It was hard to process.” 

Dev­as­tat­ed, the cou­ple was left to grap­ple with this ter­ri­fy­ing news and fig­ure out what steps to take next. Amid their fears, Daniel faced a ques­tion he could hard­ly bear. 

“What do you say when your wife turns to you and asks, ​‘Am I going to die?’” Daniel said, fight­ing back tears. 

The ER doctor’s cold­ness only com­pound­ed their dis­tress. ​“The doc­tor had no use for us. We were just old peo­ple in their way,” Daniel said. 

In the midst of their fear and con­fu­sion, Daniel turned to a place he knew well — The South Bend Clin­ic (SBC). Hav­ing worked there for three years as a lab­o­ra­to­ry tech­ni­cian before retir­ing, he reached out to the Obstetrics/​Gynecology depart­ment and to SBC physi­cians Dr. Sara Baum­garter and Dr. Emi­ly Heasley.

From the moment he made the call, they were met with some­thing far dif­fer­ent than they had expe­ri­enced before — com­pas­sion. ​“They took our con­cerns seri­ous­ly and told me they would call back. And with­in the hour, we had an appoint­ment,” Daniel recalled. 

In con­trast to their pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence, the care they received at SBC was a life­line. Dr. Baum­gart­ner quick­ly diag­nosed Mary with ovar­i­an tor­sion, a con­di­tion requir­ing emer­gency surgery — but not can­cer, as the ER doc­tor had suggested. 

“We knew imme­di­ate­ly that we were in good car­ing hands,” he shared. ​“There was empa­thy. There was car­ing. There was com­pas­sion. This should be the stan­dard for care.” 

Mary’s surgery was a suc­cess, and the cou­ple is now focused on her recov­ery. In retire­ment, Daniel cher­ish­es spend­ing more time with Mary, whom he lov­ing­ly refers to as the ​“glue” of their family. 

“She means every­thing to me,” he said, his voice full of emo­tion. ​“I can’t imag­ine my life with­out her.” 

When asked what he would say to the SBC team, Daniel’s response was sim­ple but heart­felt: ​“Thank you, thank you, thank you. The care here is per­fect. Please don’t change a thing.”