Elaine Cleary History
The Elaine Cleary Faculty Award for Excellence in General Internal Medicine Education is an annual award in the Department of Medicine to recognize an individual’s contributions to issues concerning indigent health care. Some of you may have known and worked with Elaine, but many of you didn’t. So, we’d like to take a moment and tell you who she was and why this award is given in her honor.
Elaine came to Denver Health’s Westside Clinic in 1987 after her Internal Medicine Residency at Johns Hopkins. Her warm and unassuming manner made her an immediate hit with both patients and staff. In her several years at Westside, and as an attending at wheat was then Denver General Hospital, Elaine demonstrated her strong, personal commitment to compassionate, high quality care for indigent patients, and her capacity to guide students and residents on the path toward those same ends.
In 1992, Elaine came to UCHSC to help start CU Cares – an indigent primary care clinic. In her roles as both clinician and teacher Elaine furthered the standards for care and teaching to which we are all committed.
In 1995, Elaine died of an intra-cranial hemorrhage resulting from an aneurysm. Her death, her loss, was deeply felt by her patients, colleagues, and students for many reason:
She was an excellent clinician who had the ability to make anyone feel like the most important person in the world. She truly cared about each of her patients – not just their physical ills, but their feelings, their worries, and their lives. She was an advocate for her patients –a warm, caring hand and a compassionate ear. She understood that while she saw numerous patients each day, for each of those patients, the most significant aspect of that day was seeing “the doctor” – and she was that doctor.
Elaine was a consummate colleague – a humble, inquisitive, happy “sister-in-arms” who always felt there was something to be learned or shared with her friends in the trenches. Whether she was inquiring about a patient, a journal article, your recent vacation, or your tomato plants, you were always happy to have had the conversation, because her concerns were genuine, and her answers were thoughtful. Or maybe it was just that toothy smile.
Elaine’s residents, interns, and students lost not just a very capable, approachable, and committed mentor, but also a sparkling, attainable example to which to aspire. Everyone who knew Elaine knew she embodied the gold standard for compassionate, high-quality care. Her “magic”, though, was her unassuming, down-to-earth nature. There was no glamour, no artifice, and no sleight of hand. Elaine was not a “super star”. She was just real – living proof to her students and colleagues that greatness as a doctor is rooted in spirit, not super-human capabilities.
Perhaps hearing a bit about Elaine’s background will illustrate this point. Born Elaine Hefty, she was the oldest of five children of a dairy farming family in northeast Kansas. “Elaine the brain” as she was known to her high school and college friends led a very typical life in Valley Falls, Kansas – school, church, 4H, music, chores, and family. Thanks to a full scholarship, Elaine went off to KansasState with thoughts of being a med tech. One day a mentor took her aside and suggested Elaine had the ability to go farther in medicine. After a great deal of thought, Elaine took a deep breath and embarked upon the path to be – a nurse! Then on day another mentor took her aside and suggested Elaine had the ability to do even more in medicine. After struggling to see herself in such a role, Elaine again took a deep breath and embarked upon the path to be – a doctor!
A few years later, a mentor took her aside and said, “I know you’re trying to figure out how you are going to financially swing medical school. In the meantime, why not consider delaying medical school and apply for a different program that comes with a full scholarship. “ Again, after trying to see herself as others did, some months later, Elaine found herself on the Queen Elizabeth II, heading to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
After two years of reading history and literature (when she was really supposed to be reading physiology), the Kansas farm girl returned stateside to begin medical school at Johns Hopkins. During her third residency year Elaine met Jonathan Cleary – one of the faculty at a conference in Aspen that taught young physicians the ways of the business and financial world. Uninterested as she was in business matters, but recognizing their importance, she married Jonathan.
After their marriage, Elaine and Jonathan bought their dream home – a 75 year old, dilapidated farmhouse and barn on 40 acres near Longmont. Instead of demolishing the old house, they restored it, saving the basic structure and telltale elements of its past. The result was a warm, inviting, modern farmhouse that idealized the home in which Elaine grew up. The girl has returned to her roots, delighting in her gardens and laughing at her husband’s many gaffs as he attempted becoming a farmer.
There is a story told of Elaine – a true story – that says so much of who she was and why she is so missed:
After returning from her honeymoon, the former Dr. Hefty, now Dr. Cleary, saw an elderly patient for a check-up. At the end of the visit the woman said to Elaine, “Boy, am I glad you’re my doctor now. That doctor I had before you, I didn’t like her at all. She was too pushy. No, I didn’t like that Dr. Hefty at all!” Now, most of us would have left it at that, giving thanks for the woman’s diminished visual memory, and ended the visit, but not Elaine. Honest and respectful to a fault, she sat the woman down, and owned up to being “that Dr. Hefty” and, likely, apologized for having been “pushy”.
Again, this year, the Elaine Cleary Faculty Ward for Excellence in General Internal Medicine Education if being presented to someone who is felt to have similar respect and consideration for the people we trust as patients, no mater what their background, and the courage and commitment to recognize and address the inequalities we experience as caregivers and policymakers.