April 22, 2004

Volunteer of the Week: Pat Millard

Picture this: You're in a hospital waiting for news on your loved one who is in surgery. The time drags as you impatiently watch the clock. You're worried and afraid. No one comes with any news on how your husband, mother or child is doing. Later you find out they were in the recovery room and wheeled to their room while you thought they were still being operated on. The same thing happened to volunteer Pat Millard many years ago waiting for information on how her mother-in-law was doing. She learned firsthand how difficult a situation this is.

Millard is a surgery hostess with Good Samaritan Hospital Auxiliary, assisting families in the same very trying circumstances. The petite, gray-haired woman has faithfully volunteered for the past 29 years, the last 20 assisting families waiting for word following surgery. There she keeps track of the progress of the surgery, making sure the doctor connects with the families, answering their questions, getting them coffee, magazines and newspapers to pass the time and just letting them know someone is there who cares.

“Mostly I give them TLC,” explained Millard recently from her Almaden home of 31 years. “I like people and I feel for them in this situation. I am so rewarded by helping others. Knowing you have helped someone is the best thing [about volunteering].”

Good Samaritan Hospital has 10 operating rooms and doctors can perform 30 to 40 surgeries daily, which keeps Millard very busy with the families. She also helps with the intensive care patients' families who wait in the same lobby.

Millard grew up in Maryland and volunteered in high school, first as a candy striper and then graduating to a pink lady. She attended Goucher College in Towson, Md. when it was a womens college, earning a degree in elementary education. She made the trip west to California when her husband, Bill was attending Stanford University for his master's degree. The young couple settled in Pennsylvania for 10 years after Bill accepted a position with General Electric Corporation. After he was transferred back to the Bay Area, they moved to Almaden and soon after she became a volunteer with Good Samaritan Hospital Auxiliary.

She originally began in patient services, discharging patients and delivering flowers and said, “it is a good place to start as a volunteer because you learn the layout of the hospital and the staff.” She has served as president of the auxiliary twice and on the long-range plan committee formed to improve the auxiliary and help its 300 volunteer members.

“Pat is a dedicated and very active member of our auxiliary and has served in many different roles since joining in 1975,” said Mary McCall, director of Volunteer Services and Senior Friends. “She lends her support not only on a routine basis but for special projects. She was part of the team who developed a historical video of the hospital. Pat has taken on extra shifts to help. In general, Pat enthusiastically “steps up to the plate” whenever needed to insure success of our programs and projects.”

She also volunteers for the AT&T golf tournament
Millard is just as busy in her free time. An avid golfer, she volunteers at the Professional Golf Association AT&T at Pebble Beach. There as a walking scorer she has kept tally for celebrities and pro golfers. She relates a story about her husband reading who she would score for a couple years ago. “And there's someone named Kevin Costner. I don't know who he is,” Bill said to her. All of Millard's girlfriends knew. She remembers that he was “delightful.” She also kept score on her palm pilot for Jimmy Connor who she said was nice and very charming. Sergio Garcia was overwhelmed seeing the sea lions frolic in the ocean waters off the scenic golf course. In the past, she was president of the Women's Golf Association in Northern California visiting clubs and running tournaments. Millard said she was a pretty good golfer until a slight case of arthritis turned her into a medium player.

“I like golf because husbands and wives can play together no matter what their skill level,” Millard said about the sport which she plays with her husband and friends. “It's not like tennis where you need to be evenly matched.”

The couple's other passion is travel. The Millards experienced the Panama Canal cruise and loved a six-week stay in Australia and New Zealand. They went on the Lewis and Clark trip following the same journey the explorers took through the Columbia and Snake rivers. Another trip was to Baja with Bill's Stanford alumni where they petted the whales in the warm tropical waters. Their favorite travel experience is Alaska, planning their third trip on Cruise West, known for small ships that can come up close and personal to glaciers and bears. She related a favorite story of the two of them on a kayak for the first time in pouring rain as salmon jumped in and out of the cold Pacific in Alaska. There they witnessed thousands of American eagles on towering pine trees. This summer she will go to her 50 th college reunion at Goucher College and catch up with her friends from her alma mater.

Recently, Bill suffered a stroke but has recovered 99 percent. Millard commends the quick response of the fire department and paramedics. “They were here in five minutes after I called 911.” Of course, Bill was treated at Good Samaritan Hospital, known as one of the top five stroke centers in the United States, and of course, for its empathetic surgery hostess volunteers.

—By Jeanne C. Lewis