Hospital Gets Special Donation
By Robin Williams Adams
The Ledger

WINTER HAVEN - Damaged heart muscle from cancer radiation treatment in the late 1960s left Joyce Anne Whitney in need of a cardiologist to monitor the congestive heart failure and heart-valve problems that developed as side effects of treatment.

She relied on Winter Haven's Dr. Edgar H. Willard III for ongoing care, although she went to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville for some procedures.

Their doctor-patient relationship lasted for more than 20 years, from the early 1980s until her death June 22, 2005, with Willard becoming both her primary care doctor and her heart doctor.

To commemorate that relationship, Whitney's husband recently donated $10,000 for Winter Haven Hospital's Bostick Heart Center in honor of his late wife and her long-term doctor.

The gift comes with no strings other than "to do anything in the cardiology area that would be helpful," Jodie D. Whitney said.

"I wanted to honor him because he did a lot of things he didn't have to do," said Whitney, who lives in Winter Haven. "If he found out she was having problems, he'd insist on her coming in even though he was overwhelmed. I felt he was as good, or the best one, we have here."

Among those extra actions was treating a slow-healing wound from a mastectomy Joyce Whitney had in August 2002.

The delay in getting the wound to heal was related, as her heart damage was, to the radiation she received for Hodgkins disease in 1967 and 1968, he said.

Willard, a Bond Clinic cardiologist who has been on the hospital staff for more than 27 years, said he was "honored and humbled by the kindness of the Whitney family."

Officials for the hospital and Mid-Florida Medical Services Foundation said they rely on donations such as Whitney's to expand what the hospital can provide.

When Joyce Whitney received cobalt radiation treatment - which succeeded in stopping the cancer and gave her more than 30 years of life - radiation treatment was in its infancy. Its potential long-term side effects weren't known.

Current radiation procedures are designed to minimize the tissue damage earlier ones could cause for patients like Joyce Whitney.

After years of medical treatments, she received a mechanical aortic valve in 1993 to replace the damaged one in her heart, Whitney said.

After that surgery, which he said greatly improved her quality of life, she went on medication to prevent blood clots that could have blocked her heart valves, he said.

"Dr. Willard was very particular about keeping the blood thinner at the right level," said Whitney, a University of Florida professor emeritus. A pioneer in studying citrus harvesting, he worked at the Lake Alfred Citrus Research and Education Center.

In her final months of life, during which she developed a bleeding ulcer and her kidneys declined, she spent two weeks at the hospital in Winter Haven and another two at Shands, where she died two months before their 45th wedding anniversary.

Medical technology available at Winter Haven Hospital has grown during the past two decades, Whitney said, recalling how "when she first started going to see Dr. Willard, they didn't have much of anything here."

Bostick Heart Center, with open-heart surgery and angioplasty to clear the heart arteries, is an example of that expanded care. With his endowment, combined with others, Whitney said he expects to see more become available.

Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558.