St. Mary Medical Center recently dedicated its G.I. lab in honor of Dr. Robert Lugliani, a pulmonologist who has practiced at the hospital for 38 years. The Dr. Robert Lugliani G.I. Lab is adjacent to the information desk in the hospital lobby. When asked why a pulmonologist would put his name on the G.I. Lab, Lugliani retold the story of how it was the G.I. Lab at St. Mary that saved his life— a tumor was discovered in his intestine, which resulted in a successful surgery. Lugliani was back to work within a week.
The dedication ceremony, preceded by Mass in the St. Mary Chapel and followed by a luncheon in the Parr Health Enhancement Center on campus, was attended by nearly 100 St. Mary physicians, board members, administrators, patients and hospital employees. “Normally, when we name a unit at the hospital, it requires a large gift from the honoree,” said John Wagner, president of St. Mary Foundation. “In this case, however, the gift was made by Dr. Lugliani’s colleagues and friends: Dr. Martha Molina Bernadett and Dr. Tino Bernadett.”
In his remarks at the ceremony, Dr. Tino Bernadett recounted his deep admiration for Lugliani, whom he characterized as practicing medicine like an “Energizer bunny,” up at the crack of dawn and often at the hospital until the wee hours of the night tending to patients, assisting colleagues, training young physicians and settling complex administrative issues that affect health care today.
Lugliani, 72, who was honored in the fall with the St. Mary Life Achievement Award at the 30th Annual Auction and Dinner, thanked his wife Delores, his seven children and his friends and colleagues at St. Mary for a “life of love,” love of the profession of medicine, love of his patients and love above all, of his family. Tanya, his daughter, closed the program by stating that her career as a physician started as a young girl going on rounds with her father at St. Mary, seeing first-hand that medicine was not just a science but also an art and, above all, an act of love.
