March 11, 2021: 16 Rotarians joined us via zoom, to hear Emergency Room Physician, Dr. Larry Gessner, speak. He was introduced by his friend and host, President, Dan Mahoney. Dr. Gessner was born and raised in the area. After spending many years working in medicine, he wanted to spend more time with his family doing things he really loves, like traveling, golf and magic; so now he works part-time in the ER at Evangelical. He is also, currently, very interested in nutrition and preventive medicine. He mentioned how stressful these times are and said we were probably all tired of hearing about COVID-19 and would prefer to tell us some stories of his experiences in the ER. He said he could write a book and he would call it the Good, the Bad and the Funny.  Dr. Gessner shared one moving story of a two-year old, who had been swept down stream and when found was not breathing, no pulse; rescue workers started CPR and worked on him for 40 minutes and then he was transfer to another hospital where emergency staff worked on the toddler for another 40-60 minutes; not expecting him to make it, but, he was revived and continued to make progress day-to-day and was eventually discharged and went on to live a normal life with no after effects. It was a miracle and made a lasting impact on Dr. Gessner. He went on to shared three funny stories; one of a person being bitten by a bat, that proved embarrassing for the ER staff by the response from the Department of Health (DOH).  Another incident that happened just two weeks later by a women, who claimed she was bitten by a raccoon; again, they received another call from the DOH.  And finally, another embarrassing story of a mixed up in the ER and notifying the wrong family of a death.  Then, Dr. Gessner performed one of his magic tricks for us, a card trick, with President Dan…ending with “how did he do that?”

Announcements: 1) Marv Rudnitsky shared that the international exchange program was been cancelled for 21-22, due to the pandemic; extremely disappointing for the students. 2) Our four-way test winner, Alison Rousu, will join our lunch meeting on April 1st and be recognized as a Young American and present her speech that won the competition. 3) We have delayed the annual Distinguished Service Award, until we can meet again in person. We have one person identified but would still entertain any other recommendations to consider. Please send the name of any person you might designate, to receive this honor, along to Art Bowen.

Sergeant at Arms:  Marv Rudnitsky provided a bit of humor. He collected happy fines from Carol (speaker, beautiful day, Dottie’s cat), Dottie (cat), Art (Thank you to everyone for all the cards, messages, wine and to Stacey -LSV), Dave (covid shot, 500 ducks), Marv (covid waiting period over, PSU win), John F. (happy to be in Florida and second covid scheduled), Mike (second covid, walking trail), Stacey (Art’s progress), Mary (birthday, on covid list), Hal (St. Patty tie). Sorry if I missed anyone or what was said.

Future Programs:
March 25 – Gerald Stauffer, host. Mike Molesevich, Environmental Consultant
April 1 – Dan Mahoney, host. Robert A. Garrett, P.E.  President/CEO, GSVCC
April 8 – TBD
April 15 – Pat Pinkowski, host
April 22 – John Reed, host
April 29 – Jared Roush, host