Recent News

• Blake Jon Rego
• Investigators at the Children's Hospital of New York Announce a Breakthrough in Hypospadias Surgery
• Prostate Cancer Question Forum
• COLUMBIA UROLOGY MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY TEAM PRESENTS CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH AT INTERNATIONAL MEETING
• COLUMBIA ROBOTIC SURGERY TEAM PRESENTS LATEST RESEARCH AT WORLD CONGRESS OF ENDOUROLOGY
• 5-Year Outcomes after Percutaneous Ablation of Obstructing Parapelvic Renal Cysts
• Evolution of Robotic Radical Prostatectomy
• Optimizing Robotic Renal Surgery

Blake Jon Rego

February 17, 2010 5:26 PM

Dear Dr. Benson,

I just wanted to take this moment to thank you for all that you did for me in regards to my surgery. As you can imagine, I found you at a particularly stressful time at my life. With only two semesters separating me from the real world, my mind was cluttered with the thought of making career decisions, GREs, graduate school admissions, job applications, and of course, finishing my degree. Life threw me a true curve ball in the form of a tumor on one of my kidneys to top off the things I had to think about. I then had to find a doctor in the New York area while all doctors that I, and my family, knew previously were in the Miami area.

However, it was at this time when I was fortunate enough to be introduced to you via your colleague Dr. Katz. From my first appointment with you, I felt confident that I was in good hands. From the pages of acclaim I read beforehand about your medical excellence, to your confident demeanor while reading about my case, my mind was put at a greater ease. Doctors I had spoken to before I stepped into your office described potential procedures to be technically very difficult (unless they did a full, rather than partial nephrectomy).

I understand that you normally don't deal with my insurance provider and that you went out of your way to help me. You took my case almost at charity. Words cannot express how much that meant to me (although I'll do my best in this note). I deeply appreciate what you did for my family and me and I hope someday I will be able to return the favor.

This experience was more than just a surgery to me, however. It opened my eyes to realize that there are truly remarkable people out there (like yourself) who genuinely care about humanity more than they do their financial gains. As far as I see it, you allowed me, a virtually perfect stranger to walk into your office before you gave me the world's premiere medical treatment. I will never forget that. You showed me that the "selfless act" is far more than an academic construct we learn about in our contemporary civilization component of our core curriculum. I have been given a first hand empirical example of this on a life changing scale. I will carry this experience with me as I move forward. I hope to someday do for someone else something similar that which you have done for me.

I would also like you to know that I am now (and have been for some months now) fully recovered from my surgery and enjoying my life. This past May I successfully graduated from Columbia with a degree in physics. After a breathtaking trip to Europe, I have started my new career in Boston, Massachusetts at a start up Software Company known as Tamale. As I embark on this new chapter in my life, I now truly appreciate what a peace of mind a clean bill of health affords me.

Thank you again for everything you have done for my family and me. From examining my case, to performing my surgery, I could not have asked for anything more. All the best to you and your family. 

Respectfully Yours,
Blake Jon Rego