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A Thank You Letter — 44 Years in the Making

Donor Story

A Thank You Letter — 44 Years in the Making

After an unexpected diagnosis upended her life, Virginia Forster learned to rely on Mass General. Now, she’s showing her gratitude by giving to the MGH Fund.

by
Paul Goldsmith
December 18, 2024
Some donors’ gratitude is the result of one critical moment of care, one procedure, one life-altering intervention. For others, their gratitude is born of relationships built over months and years. In the case of MGH Fund donor Virginia Forster, it was both. In a recent letter, she shared how Massachusetts General Hospital saved her life and, in the decades that followed, became part of it.

Dear Mass General,

In the spring of 1980, a few months after my 27th birthday, I started experiencing off-and-on abdominal pain. It got severe enough that I called my doctor seeking an immediate appointment. Unfortunately, it was the Friday that kicked off Patriots’ Day Weekend, and his office was closing early. He suspected a gall bladder issue and suggested I stop at the ER to have it checked out.

I worked on Newbury Street at the time, so I stopped by Mass General’s outpatient department, where I was met by a young doctor named David Nathan whose specialty, it turned out, was endocrinology. After he asked about my symptoms, he asked to me submit a blood sample. That sample promptly came back from the lab to reveal blood sugar numbers that were sky high. Dr. Nathan was surprised enough to say it’s a wonder I wasn’t unconscious. He reviewed my symptoms again, and ordered another blood test, but the results were the same: I had type 1 diabetes (TD1) and was immediately hospitalized. After a week of hospitalization, where I learned about dietary changes, insulin usage, blood sugar monitoring and balancing carb intake with exercise, I was discharged to start my new life.

Virginia Forster

I remained a patient under Dr. Nathan’s care for many years, becoming the first Mass General patient to participate in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trials (DCCT), a multicenter NIH study of T1D. Renamed the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study, the effort is now in its fourth decade of discovery.

25 years ago, I moved to Fort Lauderdale, but I continued to fly to Boston each year to learn the latest updates and see the wonderful EDIC team members, who have become longtime friends. I am now 71, retired and still going strong, unencumbered by blindness, amputation, kidney failure or other possible TD1 complications I once faced.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Mass General, Dr. Nathan and the DCCT/EDIC team for saving my life and keeping me healthy and active for the past 44 years. I consider myself a poster child — or one of many — for Mass General being the right place when a baffling health issue arises.

Sincerely yours,
Virginia Forster

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