Ronald Pomerantz, MD
Opening Night Moonlighting Assignment Foreshadows a Lifetime of Service
My first experience with Holy Cross Hospital was kind of a fluke. I was a general practitioner at the time, working and pursuing subsequent training at Georgetown University Hospital, where I had completed my residency after graduating from its School of Medicine. And a friend of mine, a fellow doctor, had accepted a moonlighting job to work nights at the new Holy Cross Hospital.
But he had a conflict on opening night and asked if I could fill in for him, which was acceptable at the time. So less than 24 hours after Holy Cross Hospital started seeing patients —January 10, 1963—I found myself helping out in the new emergency room! Thankfully, it was pretty quiet that evening. I think I maybe treated one patient.
That single stint was the extent of my involvement until 1968. By then, I had settled upon radiology as a specialty and was working at Georgetown. But Ed Soma, MD—then Holy Cross Hospital’s chief of radiology who had also trained at Georgetown—stole me away.
The rest, as they say, is history. I worked at Holy Cross Hospital for 35 years until I retired in 2003. In 1987, my wife Hanna Lee and I were honored to serve as co-chair and ball coordinator, respectively, of Holy Cross Hospital’s 23rd annual ball. She did most of the work!
Looking back over it all, little did I know that one isolated experience on opening day would eventually turn into my full-time career.