Family touched by med student’s kindness hopes memorial fund will spread the word about humane patient care

Grace Rego fought heart disease for nearly 20 years. She endured two bypass operations, assorted catheterizations and all of the pokes, prods and other indignities that accompany hospital stays.

Rego was the consummate patient, said daughter Nancy Moger. Generally cheerful, never whiney, and knowledgeable about her disease, Rego engaged the medical personnel who cared for her.

In particular, Rego developed a two-decade friendship with cardiologist Richard Shulman. "He was very good to my mother," said Moger. "But Doctor Shulman was equally impressed by her."

Rego’s relationship with Shulman, a clinical associate professor of medicine, was based on mutual respect and trust. But during the course of her disease, Rego encountered a fair share of physicians who were unwilling or unable to listen to what she had to say or to deal with her on an equal footing, Moger said.

Just after Christmas 1999, Rego was rushed to The Miriam Hospital with congestive heart failure. Shulman was on vacation. Of the many medical personnel who treated Rego that week, one person visited daily. Rego called him her "little red-haired doctor." A former redhead herself, Rego had a fondness for those who shared the trait, but it was his bedside manner that impressed her most.

Rego’s regular visitor was Seth Frenzen (left), a third-year medical student at the time. Although charged with following her case, Frenzen also made time to listen to Rego. "He was interested in my mother as a person, not just as a medical condition," Moger said.

"Seth made eye contact with my mother," she said. "He touched her hands. There was not only an emotional connection for her, but also a physical one. That’s a strong aspect, which has healing properties."

Very sick, Rego looked forward to Frenzen’s "warm and friendly visits," Moger said. That Friday, Frenzen told Rego that he had the weekend off and would see her Monday. Friday night, she died.

Rego’s kinship with Shulman, plus the brief but "sincere and caring" attention that Frenzen provided, inspired her family to create The Grace Fund to support an annual forum for Brown medical students and dedicated to improving the doctor-patient relationship.

The idea of a lecture focused on enhanced ties between physicians and patients received "determined and enthusiastic sponsorship" from Fred Schiffman, M.D., Moger said. He pushed to put the program in place and to bring in its first speaker last December.

"Part of my job has to do with educating younger colleagues," said Schiffman, who is vice chairman and professor in the Department of Medicine and director of medical education at Miriam. "The kind of behavior that Frenzen exhibited naturally is something that should be copied and reinforced. He made a tremendous difference in her life just by being there. It is important that we take such behavior and try to teach it, enhance it, and advance it in medical school and on the wards."

Frenzen said he was "tickled" to learn about The Grace Fund, but said he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.

"I was following Mrs. Rego from a medical standpoint, but I also talked with her about what she liked doing and about her interests," said Frenzen, now in his final semester in the Medical School. "The time you put in to get to know someone pays in terms of being able to treat that individual."

"There is a dichotomy in medicine between brusque specialists and the Seth Frenzens, who are coming up in the ranks, so caring, so humanistic," said Moger. "The fund seemed like the right thing."