NEWBURYPORT — What was supposed to be Anna Smulowitz-Schultz 79th birthday celebration on June 6 quickly turned into a critical emergency when her husband, Alan Schultz developed sepsis and had to be rushed to Anna Jaques Hospital.
For close to six days, the Amesbury resident was under the close care of hospital doctors and staff as they treated him for the life-threatening condition. Sepsis happens when an infection triggers a chain reaction throughout one’s body, according to the Center for Disease Control.
“That is probably one of the most lethal diagnoses in the hospital next to a heart attack, they take it quite seriously,” Smulowitz-Schultz said.
Almost a week after Schultz was admitted, Anna Jaques staff were able to control the condition to the point where he was cleared to go back to their Amesbury home. While expressing her joy and appreciation to the entire hospital, Smulowitz-Schultz gave special thanks to the hospital’s infection control specialist who treated her husband.
“He comes and he says, ‘yeah, I’ll be on his case, and I’ll be watching, and we’re going to find the right antibiotics,’ and he’s explaining the whole thing, step one to step five, and he kept coming back to see how his diagnosis was doing,” Smulowitz-Schultz said. “He really was hugely important in Alan’s recovery.”
Now, with her husband having fully recovered, Smulowitz-Schultz is going public with her husband’s successful battle against the deadly condition and thanking Anna Jaques Hospital for saving her husband’s life.
A medical chaplan herself, Smulowitz-Schultz said she knows firsthand how important it is to make sure a patient and their representative are comfortable, which she said the hospital did an excellent job of doing.
Coming in one at a time to make sure they were not overwhelmed, she shared that every member of staff they interacted with made sure to begin with compassionate introductions, and stressed to both she and her husband that they could ask any questions and they were there for them.
“I got so much support from so many departments, so many areas,” Smulowitz-Schultz said.
She said that level of care was consistent throughout her time there, with the hospital allowing her stay overnight in a chair next to her 83-year-old husband. As a result, she had even more time to observe the care he was provided.
“I’ve been doing this for about 23 years, so I watch these things for other people all the time, and they were doing their job splendidly for my husband,” Smulowitz-Schultz said.
Originally from Newburyport, Smulowitz-Schultz is known around the region for her work in the performing arts having founded Theater in the Open at Maudslay State Park in 1978.
In a letter sent to the Daily News earlier this month, Smulowitz-Schultz offered these words to hospital staff:
“We will never forget the people at Anna Jaques Hospital who cared for him and helped make that recovery possible,” Smulowitz-Schultz wrote. “To the emergency department and ICU teams, and to every medical professional who played a role in Alan’s care; thank you for your skill, your compassion, you dedication and most importantly, for saving my husband’s life.”
Anna Jaques Chief Medical Officer Andrew Popelka Jr. said the hospital is “deeply committed” to meeting the health care needs of Greater Newburyport.
“We are honored when members of our community place their trust in us during some of life’s most challenging moments, and we remain committed to ensuring they receive the highest quality expert care and personal support. We are especially proud of the dedication and professionalism of our extraordinary team of physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, and clinical and support staff, who work together every day to deliver high-quality, compassionate care to our patients and their families.”
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.