[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S1998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN HONOR OF DR. FELIX G. SHEEHAN

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise to speak in honor of Dr. Felix 
G. Sheehan, of Middletown, CT. Next week, on March 13, 2004, Dr. 
Sheehan will be receiving the ``Irish Person of the Year'' award from 
the Middletown division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest 
and largest Irish Catholic society in the United States.
  Dr. Sheehan retired 2 years ago after 47 years in the medical 
practice. As a doctor, he was, in so many ways, a treasure from a 
bygone era. Even as health care became more and more of a business, and 
even as Americans increasingly dealt with the complicated world of 
copayments, referrals, and coverage networks, Dr. Sheehan was a doctor 
who built lifelong relationships with his patients and made house calls 
at all hours of the day and night.
  His tremendous dedication, warmth, and kind spirit are legendary in 
Middletown, where many of his patients became just as devoted to him as 
he was to them. One of those patients described him as ``the best 
doctor in the world.''
  Dr. Sheehan was born in Belfast and came to America with his family 
at the age of 6. He served his new country in the Pacific during World 
War II. During his service, he had an experience that would change his 
life--and the lives of many others. While stationed aboard the USS 
Wasp, he was asked one day to help out a nurse who was having trouble 
treating a patient. It was then that he first realized that medicine 
would be his calling.
  After attending college at St. John's University in New York, Felix 
Sheehan spent the next 5 years in his native Belfast earning his 
medical degree from Queen's University. It was happenstance, he says, 
that he found Connecticut. But after seeing the slogan on Middlesex 
Hospital that read, ``Caring and Kindness Always, All Ways,'' he knew 
that Middletown would be his home. Because although that motto belonged 
to the hospital, it could have easily been written to describe Felix 
Sheehan.
  To Felix Sheehan, being a doctor meant so much more than examining 
patients and prescribing medicines. He offered complimentary medical 
services to local parochial schools. He took on needy patients free of 
charge. He hosted a wedding for one of his employees who couldn't 
afford it. He retained legal counsel for the child of one of his 
patients. And as his own career drew to a close, he served as a mentor 
and role model to young doctors entering the profession.
  From the day he took up his practice until the day he retired, Dr. 
Sheehan gave so much of himself to so many people. In the words of his 
daughter Laureen, ``in a very real and special sense, he was more than 
a physician--he was and is a healer.''
  From one Irishman to another, I offer my warmest congratulations to 
Dr. Sheehan on the honor he will receive next week. I wish him, his 
wife Marie, and their children many more happy years together.

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