Paying it Forward With Planned Giving
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute saved Patricia Von Jasinski’s vision. In return, she’s supporting the institute by establishing a planned giving gift.
When she came down with a persistent eye infection after a routine cataract surgery, Aloha (Patricia) Von Jasinski’s specialist sent her to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. She received surgery and other treatments to cure the infection.
“Bascom Palmer Eye Institute saved my eye,” Von Jasinski said. “Not only did they save my eye. They also left me with really good vision.”
Having personally experienced the value of Bascom Palmer’s 24/7 eye emergency department and world-class specialists, Von Jasinski decided to make a planned gift to Bascom Palmer. At the age of 76, she is arranging to leave the majority of her assets to Bascom Palmer.
“I want my money to go to Bascom Palmer,” said Von Jasinski, a retired advanced practice nurse and current real estate agent. “I came out of the health care profession, and I want to do something to help other people. This will have a significant impact on future patients.”
An Infection in Need of Specialty Treatment
Von Jasinski’s Bascom Palmer story started with cataract surgery on her left eye, near her home in Palm Coast. As is typical with such surgeries, an intraocular lens was implanted in her eye. Twenty-six days after the surgery, she started experiencing burning and light sensitivity in that eye, followed by cloudy vision. Her local ophthalmologist determined that she had an infection on her surgical incision and sent her to a nearby cornea specialist, who began treatment with antibiotics.
However, the infection did not respond to antibiotic therapy and Von Jasinski’s vision worsened to a full whiteout. Her local doctors asked whether she would consider going to Bascom Palmer.
My doctors said to me, ‘We do these procedures maybe once a year. Bascom Palmer does them every day. You need to be going down to Bascom Palmer.’
Aloha (Patricia) Von Jasinski
“I needed a higher level of expertise and experience. I possibly would need a corneal transplant,” she recalled. “My doctors said to me, ‘We do these procedures maybe once a year. Bascom Palmer does them every day. We want the best outcome for you and your vision, which means you need to be going down to Bascom Palmer.’”
Von Jasinski and her partner drove six hours south, arriving at the Bascom Palmer Eye Emergency Department at 1:00 a.m. Von Jasinski was immediately seen by a specialist.
“It was almost unbelievable that, at that hour, I was able to see a specialist,” she said.
Ultimately, Bascom Palmer doctors determined that she had an MRSA infection that had gone through her cornea into the interior of her eye through the incision made for cataract surgery.
After four days of treatment at Bascom Palmer, during which she stayed at a nearby hotel, Von Jasinski had eye surgery. Her care was provided by Harry W. Flynn Jr., M.D., a retina and vitreous diseases specialist and the J. Donald M. Gass Chair in Ophthalmology at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, and Guillermo Amescua, M.D., a cataract and refractive disease specialist who is medical director of Bascom Palmer’s Ocular Surface Program and a professor of clinical ophthalmology at the Miller School.
“My surgeons were able to clean out the infection and do a vitrectomy,” Von Jasinski said. “Dr. Amescua was able to do a corneal flap, so no corneal transplant was needed. My doctors saved my eye!”
Von Jasinski still marvels at how her Bascom Palmer specialists saved her vision.
“Twenty-four hours post-op, at my first dressing change, my surgeon unwrapped the turban from around my eye, removed the dressing and I could see the eye chart. I could read the first three lines,” she recalled. “Before surgery, I couldn’t even see the big E. Already, I could see again.”
Her vision continued to improve over the next several months. Soon, she added, it was “back to normal. I use reading glasses like anyone post-cataract surgery. I really do have excellent vision.”
Paying Vision-saving Care Forward
Von Jasinski was impressed by the diagnostic capabilities of Bascom Palmer’s team, as well as the specialization, all of which comes from the number of less-common cases they deal with on a regular basis.
“I’m just very fortunate that I have access to this level of care,” she said. “You’ve got to go to the specialty facilities to get that level of expertise. Bascom Palmer’s number one in the U.S.”
She was also impressed by the quality of care and expertise of every individual she interacted with.
“All the doctors and nurses were so good,” she said. “And trust me, I would know. I’ve worked in a lot of hospitals. I know the grind.”
After seeing how Bascom Palmer saved both her eye and her vision, Von Jasinski wanted to make a meaningful donation to the institute. She realized that a planned gift would enable her to do so.
“It’s tough to face your own demise, so it hasn’t been easy for me to think about what’s going to happened when I die,” she acknowledged.
But once she made the decision to leave the majority of her estate to Bascom Palmer, “I had such a sense of relief. I now know what I want to do, without any doubt. This will have a great impact. I am so thankful, and I am glad to know that I’m giving it forward.”
Tags: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, cataracts, Dr. Guillermo Amescua, Dr. Harry W. Flynn Jr., eye diseases, vision impairment, vision loss