Dogs bring joy to patients with mental illness
Is the doctor … er … dog in? Patients at Sharp Grossmont Hospital for Behavioral Health enjoy routine visits from certified pet therapy dogs.
Dale Bowers came to Chula Vista early in his career as an aerospace engineer, relocating to take a job with Rohr Corporation after his first job at Boeing was discontinued by Congress. He has proudly called it home ever since.
“When I moved here, there was almost nothing beyond Hilltop Avenue. It was all farmland and open area,” says Bowers. “Highway 5 wasn’t finished; it stopped at National City. The 805 was in the future. I have seen tremendous, unbelievable change happen in my years here.”
Taking care of his health, close to home
The focus of Bowers’ work at Rohr varied from modular housing to aircraft and spacecraft parts, and from rapid transit cars to postal mechanization and advanced marine. It kept him interested enough to spend the rest of his career there and establish deep roots in the local community.
One key component was finding a reliable home base for taking good care of his health.
“I got my medical care first at Community Hospital of Chula Vista and then at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center once (Community) merged with Sharp HealthCare,” says Bowers. “The care has always been excellent.”
And his attention to it has paid off, with no need for serious procedures at any point in his long history as a Sharp patient. Bowers credits doctors like his Guardian Angels Dr. Louis Christiansen, who caught a case of shingles early on, and Dr. Paulo Guillinta, who has helped him manage heart conditions, for helping him stay healthy.
A way to pay it back, for decades of great care
Bowers has been consistently impressed with his care and wanted to find a way to say thank you to Sharp. When he learned about Sharp Chula Vista’s new hospital tower, he knew joining that cause was just the way.
“I saw that Sharp was constantly growing and modernizing in a way that not all other local providers were, and that Sharp was really making a contribution to this area of San Diego,” he says. “I went on a tour of the tower construction site and was impressed by the private patient rooms, the operating rooms with robotic technology, and the only hybrid catheterization lab in South Bay. I was glad to see such a major improvement in this location.”
Bowers included a charitable gift to Sharp in his estate plan, generously designating the funds to name not one, but two, nurses stations in the new tower.
“I was blown away by the view up there. You can see from San Diego to Tijuana — it’s just unbelievable,” Bowers says. “And, of course, it’s all to benefit Chula Vista. So I thought because I’ve been a longtime resident of this community, then that’s the best place to focus my legacy.”
Dale Bowers supported not-for-profit Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center through a planned gift. To learn more about leaving a legacy by arranging a planned gift to Sharp, visit give.sharp.com/planned-gifts. To learn more about the new hospital tower at Sharp Chula Vista and its philanthropic campaign, visit sharp.com/chulavistaexpansion.
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