Carol Rabinovitz

Carol Rabinovitz

In recognition of her generosity, Carol was welcomed into The Brigham Legacy Society, which celebrates donors dedicated to shaping the future of medicine by including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in their estate plans.

For more than 40 years, Carol Rabinovitz has been going to Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital for her mammograms. Even while living in Maine, she still made the trip to the Jamaica Plain campus for her annual exams.

“There was no way I would want to be anywhere else,” Carol says, describing how the hospital combines world-class expertise with warmth, compassion, and a focus on putting patients at ease. She points to the fact that, before the pandemic, patients at the Sagoff Breast Imaging and Diagnostic Center were given the option of waiting to hear the results of their mammogram immediately following the exam, so they could leave the hospital knowing the findings.

“There’s nothing more you can ask for,” she says. “They understand patients can feel anxious about their results and they truly care.”

Carol experienced her own moment of anxiety in 2006, when one of her routine mammograms revealed a cancerous lump. She ultimately needed three surgeries to remove the tumor—and recalls how the kindness and compassion of her surgeon, Peggy Duggan, MD, helped her through this journey.

“From then on, every time I had a mammogram, she would see me afterwards for an examination to make sure she agreed there was nothing wrong,” Carol says. “To have a doctor who is so connected with you, it makes a difference.”

Three years later, Carol was diagnosed with breast cancer again, this time in her other breast. Once again, she underwent surgery with Duggan to remove the tumor.

Today, Carol’s cancer is in remission, and she credits the care she received from the entire team at the Faulkner with saving her life. Carol says the same emphasis on exceptional, patient-centered care is present throughout the entire hospital system. She notes that her husband, Mayer, was treated for a medical emergency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital a few years ago, spending nine days in the surgical intensive care unit.

“If he’d been anywhere else, I don’t think he’d be alive today,” she says.

With gratitude for her care, Carol has made multiple annual gifts to Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s breast care program. More recently, she opted to establish a charitable gift annuity. This popular planned giving vehicle allows the donor to make a gift of cash or securities to the hospital; in exchange, they (or a loved one) receive a fixed income for life. At the passing of the last beneficiary, the remaining funds are directed to the area of the hospital chosen by the donor. For Carol, the choice was easy: patient care within the Comprehensive Breast Program.

In recognition of her generosity, Carol was welcomed into The Brigham Legacy Society, which celebrates donors dedicated to shaping the future of medicine by including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in their estate plans.

“The Brigham is the best hospital in the country, as far as I’m concerned,” she says. “If there’s something wrong with you, that’s where you want to be treated.”

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