About Donna Coletti, MD
My introduction to palliative care was through the witnessing of extraordinary acts of compassion and courage when my father was diagnosed at age forty with a cancer that resulted in disfigurement and loss of speech. While experiencing this vulnerability, all those involved in his life became more human.
TEDx Talk from October 2019: https://youtu.be/bCcnjRBpWaU
As there were no guarantees of survival there was rather the tacit understanding that he would be cared for one day at a time, with a focus on goals and needs.
The experience of practicing as an OB/GYN expanded my capacity to understand compassion by assisting women and their families bear the pain of despair during infertility, pregnancy loss, the diagnosis of a life- threatening illness and the death of a loved one.
This path was later re- directed by the clarion call of parents who needed assistance. Observing compassionate nurses and home health aides, I stopped seeing medicine as a primarily linear path. The practice of medicine became a better awareness of and appreciation for the Circle of Life.
At first blush, birth and death may appear diametrically opposed; in fact, the psychological and emotional issues are very similar. Both are about transitions. Guiding women through transitions was simply a stepping-stone to a mid-life career change, to a focus on Hospice and Palliative Care.
My father died at the age of 86, having outlived most of his peers, his physician and surgeon. I had the privilege of caring for him and for my mother, who passed soon thereafter and five years later, being the founding medical director of the Stephen and Betsy Corman Palliative Care Center at Greenwich Hospital.
Today, following the creation and development of both inpatient and outpatient models for care at Greenwich Hospital, Yale New Haven Health I have returned to practicing private Palliative Care consultations. This new practice will bring my medical counseling back into the community through office or home visits, outpatient video consultations and Greenwich Hospital consultations.
Patient Care Services
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- Pain and Symptom Management
(Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, Fatigue, Nausea, Constipation etc.) - Goals of Care Counseling
- Family meetings
- Functional Assessments with Take-Away Analysis Reports
- Link to Self Administered Functional Assessment Tool
- Pain and Symptom Management