Volunteer builds healthy relationship with hospital
Over the last 40 years, Horace Saunders has watched Washington Adventist Hospital transition from a moderately-staffed sanitarium for his ailing parents to the technologically-advanced health care facility it is today.
Saunders, 83, a founding member of the Washington Adventist Hospital Foundation's board of trustees and former president of the Maryland office of the American Cancer Society, retired last month after 38 years of volunteering for the hospital and other county cancer and health care organizations. He first became acquainted with the hospital after moving from England to Maryland in 1947 upon his return from service in World War II.
"I want to see that through," he said as he sat in the hospital's cafeteria meeting room Thursday.
In 1969, Saunders himself underwent an ostomy, a procedure in which the large intestines are replaced with a pouch, usually due to severe gastrointestinal inflammation or colorectal cancer. Having contracted an infection while fighting in Burma during the war, Saunders' experience motivated him to help others who are suffering from the disease. He founded Metro Maryland Ostomy Association Inc. in 1974 with American Cancer Society funds.
"The patients go through a terrible trauma and they have to be taught how to live with it, and that's what the ostomy society does: It helps teach patients how to live with an ostomy," he said. "Honestly, I was a beneficiary of the help that I gave others."
Using cancer society money, Saunders funded training for the first 130 ostomy and wound-care nurse specialists to staff hospitals from Maryland, D.C. and northern Virginia.
Judy Felsenfeld, a corporate development officer with the Montgomery County chapter of the American Cancer Society, remembers meeting Saunders when she first began working for the society 10 years ago.
"He was already a volunteer and helped me, giving me the lay of the land and educating me regarding the patients," she said. "He had an office next to mine and I would hear him answer the phone setting up meetings with patients. … He interacted with them with such compassion and caring — telling them how he would be there for them personally."
Bridget Hart Shea, the hospital foundation's executive director, described Saunders as a "very proper but fun, well-dressed gentleman." She then praised his fundraising prowess and legacy, which includes founding the hospital's annual gala.
"If it weren't for his efforts, for example starting the gala 21 years ago, we wouldn't have had the money we needed to renovate the emergency department," she said, citing the $310,000 in foundation money spent upgrading the hospital's emergency room in December. "What he will tell you is everything that he has done for the hospital has been for the patients."
The gala typically raises as much as $200,000 a year in foundation funds, Saunders estimated.
The veteran volunteer attributed much of the foundation's achievements to the skill and efforts of others and commended fellow hospital and American Cancer Society volunteers along with his wife, Violet.
"In fact, the very first appointment I made to come to this hospital to see the president was made by my wife," he said. "That was way back in 1974. I couldn't have done that without her."
When asked about what he would miss the most about his work, Saunders quickly slipped back into his role as one of the hospital's leading advocates, supporting the hospital's planned move to the White Oak/Calverton area by 2013, a sore subject for some Takoma Park residents who argue that they will not have access to health care if the facility moves.
Saunders pointed out that aside from allowing Washington Adventist Hospital to accommodate more patients in a new facility, the Takoma Park site will not be left vacant and plans for an emergency care clinic are well under way.
"To see the hospital become really so successful from its early days, it gave me a great deal of pleasure," he said. "This is my community hospital, and I'm hoping that the community will realize how important it is for us to have our new hospital built."
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