The DDMS advertisement for Lakewood Bikur Cholim auction has prompted me to share this recent story, which is one of the incidents behind
my comment on that post. I've used Bikur Cholim before for referrals, and I've eaten at the Bikur Cholim pantries at hospitals when my children were born, but the following incident took place just this month.
My DW got a sudden, terrible pain, and after calling a relative of mine who is a Hatzolah volunteer, I decided to go to the emergency room. I showed up at the emergency department of MMCSC/Kimball at midnight, and they told me to wait in the outer waiting room, in what they estimated would be an hour-long line. My DW was in excruciating pain, but being that this was the outer waiting room, there was no possibility of even seeing a doctor to get pain meds. I tried speaking to the front desk, but they told me to sit down and wait my turn patiently. The pain level of my DW prompted my to call by my Hatzolah relative, and he told me he'll call me back in a minute.
One minute later, he called back. "Wait there, and Rabbi Yehuda Kaszirer from Bikur Cholim will be there in two minutes."
Sure enough, two minutes later, at about 12:15 in the morning, the head of Bikur Cholim walked into the hospital waiting room. I appraised him of the urgency of the situation, and he promised to pass along my message to the head doctor in the ER. Minutes later, my DW was allowed in and was able to get pain meds. When the doctor came in, he said that he had a conversation with "Yehuda" about the situation, and he was extra patient and helpful. (Thankfully, it was not a serious medical issue, and she is completely fine now.)
Needless to say, when I saw the DDMS ad, I immediately gave a donation. (Dan, let them know that they are getting their money's worth by advertising here - I did not know about the auction until I saw it on the site.)