The Union Health Foundation annually presents the Weinbaum Award, recognizing “exceptional leadership and contributions to the practice of medicine and the care of patients”. The award honors the late Jack Weinbaum, M.D., a former UHC member who served 33 years at Union Hospital in Terre Haute.
Recently, Cathy and Steve Jolliff sent a contribution in memory of Dr. Jack Weinbaum.
I sent the notice to Bobbie Weinbaum and she was curious as to who the Jolliffs were. I told Bobbie I knew the Jolliffs as very nice people who attended services on special occasions and were friends of Louise and Walter Sommers.
I emailed Cathy for further details to pass along to Bobbie. When Bobbie received this information, it warmed her heart to know how Dr. Weinbaum had touched the Jolliffs’ lives and that they still remembered him after all these years.
Cathy tells her story
Here is Cathy’s letter:
The Weinbaums don’t know me. In 1970, I saw Dr. Lenyo, an internist here in Terre Haute. I lived in Sullivan [Indiana] and was a senior in high school. I began having unusual reactions when I got cold.
Mom and Dad took me to see Dr. Lenyo. I was diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease called cryoglobulinemia.
Years later, Dr. Lenyo told me Dr. Weinbaum helped with my lab work. Without the two of them, I probably to this day wouldn’t know my diagnosis.
If the test isn’t very precisely done, results are negative. They did two tests and both were positive. Dr. Lenyo said a patient can have false negatives but not false positives. At that time, I was the only patient they had seen with the rare disease.
When I saw Dr. Weinbaum had been a member of the UHC, I wanted to honor him in some way. His Yartzeit seemed a way I could do so.
[Dr. Weinbaum] must have been very careful with his methodology! I will always be grateful for his instrumental role in my diagnosis. It is my pleasure to remember him, yearly, for his quality of professionalism and the impact it has made to this day in my life.
God bless,
Cathy