Michael J. Brescia, M.D.
Executive Medical Director
Calvary Hospital
Dr. Michael Brescia is the Executive Medical Director at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York, the innovative state of the art leader in palliative care for terminally ill cancer patients.
His storied career spans decades of seemingly miraculous developments in patient care and bio-medical sciences and technology. He is renowned for his contribution to the creation of the Cimino-Brescia fistula, the most common means utilized for hemodialysis over the last 40 years. He was instrumental in securing full accreditation for Calvary Hospital in the 1960s and has been the driving force behind many of its most successful initiatives including The Palliative Care Institute, The Center for Curative & Palliative Wound Care, its Hospice, Home Care, and Nursing Home Hospice. Calvary's Inpatient service and Outpatient Clinic are models for national and international palliative care programs.
What distinguishes Calvary from other health care facilities is the individual care it provides each patient and family, founded in the guiding principles of compassion, respect for the dignity of every patient, and non-abandonment of our patients and families.
Dr. Brescia and his colleague James Cimino, MD are the co-authors of "Calvary Hospital, A Model for Palliative Care in Advanced Cancer".
Perhaps the best introduction to this remarkable man may be found in his own words, drawn from the 2011 Annual Report of Calvary Hospital, in which he reflects on the mission of authentic care for the dying and the ability of love, manifest in care for the dying, to overcome even the most difficult of circumstances dividing cultures, nations, and peoples:
"In
our own experience, we have been confronted with patients and families who have
endured intolerable suffering. We are faced with these overwhelming personal
catastrophic events and are further burdened with world-wide atrocities. From
our visitors, we hear of unthinkable and unspeakable crimes against humanity.
Even
in our daily lives, we stand alongside our own day to day personal tragedies.
At
times, we find ourselves desperate, windblown and helpless, trying to
understand the senseless cruelties that fill our days.
In
spite of this, we must decide that the only action to confront the misery is to
love our patients and somehow, by our own sacrifices, redeem what seems almost
impossible to forgive. In many ways we become like the great prophets of old
and the healers in recent times that allow us to persevere.
In
the face of this grief, we have only the weaponry of love; the recognition that
each patient affords us the opportunity to somehow make the sacrifices that
are, through grace, offered to our Creator.
The
representation of this culture of Calvary has been crucibilized in the
Compatior. All of us who touch our patients almost lift them into eternity with
our own arms.
In
the Middle East, the unbearable suffering on all sides is relentless,
impenetrable and at times hopeless. Calvary’s involvement in this part of the
world will allow us to offer our own sacrifices and break the forces of despair
apart.
In
recent years, a flow of visitors and health care professionals from both Israel
and Palestine have been our wards in education and mentorship. A profound
satisfaction for us has been the education at Calvary of Palestinian physicians
and nurses for the establishment of the first hospice facility in Palestine to
care for the myriad of wounds and diseases afflicting a great number of the
population. The need for pain control is overwhelming and expert treatment is
paramount.
Because
of the training and support of Calvary in the midst of the West Bank, stands a
Calvary Center named as such by the Palestinians for the purpose of palliative
care under the most difficult circumstances.
We
visited only recently to celebrate the opening of this marvelous monument. Of
great importance was the demonstration of respect where Christianity, Judaism
and Islam were brought together out of reverence and love. This accomplishment,
along with the continuing relationship with other Middle East countries, has
brought a new dimension to the relationship of our Archdiocese [New York] with the Middle
East community.
Even
greater than endless and fruitless attempts at reconciliation has been the open
arms from our Calvary Hospital.
It
seems almost providential and miraculous that Calvary Hospital now sits in
Palestine, the seat of our Founder, as a measure of our devotion to the
sanctity of life giving hope that all obstacles can be conquered."
Don't the opportunity to hear Dr. Brescia on October 28, 2012 following the annual White Mass of the Archdiocese of Hartford at the Church of St. Mary in New Haven, Connecticut.
Use the "Reservation Form" tab above to learn more about how you may reserve a place at this inspiring presentation of the health care vocation at its best.
