Between taking her kids to gymnastics and riding
her bike from her Somerville home to the CHA Everett (formerly the Whidden),
Dr. Erika Fellinger somehow finds time to perform just about any kind of
surgery that might walk through the doors of the community hospital.
Her dedication and listening skills, many
say, are notable, and it is one of many reasons she was recently named a Boston
‘Top Doc’ in the latest issue of Boston Magazine. Once a year, the magazine
highlights several doctors and specialists who have gone above and beyond in
the medical profession. This year, Fellinger was recognized.
“It was a surprise, and it’s an honor,” she
said. “I think it speaks a lot for CHA. I love my colleagues. We have a mission
driven group of physicians and I consider myself one of them. I love my
patients and listening to their stories and knowing their families and the
staff here. I think if that’s what gets you ‘Top Doc,’ then there needs to be
more of it. That’s really what we need more of in medicine. We need people who
enjoy the stories and the people. I’ve been on the other end as a patient and I
know how it feels. Even if I can’t fix them, the listening I can do is
critical.”
Fellinger didn’t come by way of Harvard or
Boston University, like many top doctors in the area, but rather by way of the
mountains and valleys of practicing community medicine in Vermont – with a few
years training in Africa as a member of the Peace Corps as well.
She said the key for her has been to focus
on the patients of Everett, Chelsea and Revere and really get to know them. As
a general surgeon mostly conducting minimally invasive surgery, she can be
doing everything from removing a gall bladder to repairing a knee to treating a
gunshot wound that cannot wait.
In the midst of those procedures, she said
she has always made an effort to visit with the patients – learning about them
whether they are five generations in Everett or they have just arrived from any
number of countries around the world.
“General surgery isn’t usually warm and
fuzzy, but I feel fortunate the training I had in Vermont featured role models
that listened to patients and their stories,” she said. “It helped to find out
what was wrong with them. Coming down here, I realize now that was a really
unique experience and I am fortunate.”
Fellinger, 50, was born in Washington, D.C.,
but said her “hippie” mom retreated to Maine when she was 11. As the oldest of
five children, she said there wasn’t a lot of money, but there was always a lot
of work to be done. She got a big break in landing a scholarship to Smith College.
After college, though, this non-traditional surgeon took another
non-traditional route on her way to the operating room.
“After college, I thought I wanted to go to
medical school, but wanted to get experience so I joined the Peace Corps,” she
said. “I ended up in Africa for four years. It was life changing. I still have
friends there, and with cell phones, it’s much easier to talk to them now.”
She returned to the United States and
enrolled in the University of Vermont Medical School (which is Maine’s in-state
medical school). She married a Vermonter, and was a resident for 10 years up
there, later completing a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at Bay State
Medical Center in western Massachusetts.
Some 14 years ago, she got an offer to come
to the “big city,” being offered a position at the former Whidden and at
Cambridge Hospital. Going back and forth between the two facilities, however,
was challenging. Soon, she was able to decide between the two, and she chose
Everett.
“I had a choice between Cambridge and
Whidden and I chose Whidden,” she said. “I loved it. It’s a great operating
staff. Everybody really cares and bends over backwards to help out. I also love
the patients. My practice has grown. I see many of my patients out in Everett
when I go to eat, and I’ve even seen patients while taking a steam at Dillon’s
Russian Steam Bath in Chelsea.”
The hospital has changed, she said, but only
for the better – as she noted everyone is now board certified and it’s much
more academic. She said she often describes herself to patients as a “butts and
guts surgeon” due to the fact that general surgery can entail both parts of the
anatomy.
More than anything, she said she enjoys
being a compassionate physician who could face just about any kind of care.
“It’s a community hospital,” she said. “I
love being able to take care of anything that comes through the door.”
Fellinger is
married, and has three children between the ages of 13 and 8. They make their
home in Somerville.
View the original here:
Dr. Erika Fellinger of CHA Everett Named ‘Top Doc’ for Surgery