Baltimore Sun

Thanks, University of Maryland Medical Center, for saving my life — and my grandfathe­r’s

- — Sandra L. Doggett, Myersville

I received a kidney transplant at the University of Maryland Medical Center on April 15. After the transplant, there are four weekly visits for checkups. I live 60 miles west of Baltimore and the appointmen­ts start early. We decided to spend the night in a Baltimore hotel so we wouldn’t be late. We chose the one on Light Street with views of the Inner Harbor. What a thrill that view is in daylight, night and dawn.

As I looked out over the water, I remembered stories of my grandfathe­r, Carroll A. Doggett, Sr., coming into that harbor in a steamboat about 1908. He grew up on the northern neck of Virginia about 154 miles from Baltimore. His father was a subsistenc­e farmer in a rural area. Each night, a steamboat alternated between the Baltimore and Norfolk harbors to take produce and calves to market.

When my grandfathe­r was about 12, the doctor in his small town diagnosed him with appendicit­is. There weren’t any surgery facilities between Baltimore and Norfolk. They put him and his father on a steamboat to Baltimore. They rode all night with packs of ice on his belly. In the morning, they arrived in that same Baltimore harbor that I was admiring 115 years later. They took him to what is now the University of Maryland Medical Center, and he had his surgery. He stayed in the hospital for three weeks and then returned to the northern neck on another steamboat.

What an adventure for a young boy. Maybe that is why when he became old enough, he started working on those steamboats. Unfortunat­ely, he developed adhesions and had to go back the hospital, but this time the boat was headed to Norfolk.

It is amazing to me that two generation­s of Doggetts were served in the same hospital 115 years apart. University of Maryland has been serving the region for 200 years this year. I am indebted to the skills and caring of the staff. I can’t say enough good things about them. I had a very good experience there on two different transplant­s 25 years apart. Their surgeries have saved and improved the quality of life for folks in our region for generation­s (“‘A turning of the page’: Maryland doctors, leaders reflect on end of COVID public health emergency,” May 5).

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