On Monday, December 2nd, the Vesper Lane entrance to the hospital parking lot will be temporarily closed to complete site work. We hope to reopen the Vesper Lane entrance as soon as possible.

Park here off Prospect Street and walk in the new main entrance!

Vehicles can use the two Prospect Street entrances:

• Patients accessing the Emergency Department will use the Prospect Street emergency entrance and parking lot.
• For all other hospital services besides the Emergency Department, use the main Prospect Street entrance, park in the main lot and enter the building either through the new main front door or the new medical center door.
• Dr. Lepore’s patients should use the Prospect Street entrance to the lot.

We’re happy to announce that on Monday, Nov. 25th, both the main entrance and physician clinics entrance, as well as a portion of the new parking area at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, will be opened for patient access.

Patient parking will be available at the Emergency Department off Prospect Street and the newly paved portion of the main parking lot accessible from the new Prospect Street driveway, as well as the existing parking area off Vesper Lane. With these changes and additional parking spaces, the complimentary valet parking service at the Emergency Department entrance will cease, effective at the end of the day today, Friday Nov. 22nd.

On July 8, 2017, as we were celebrating our son’s 3rd birthday, a freak accident resulted in head trauma and left him non-responsive with his eyes rolled back in his head. Due to our proximity to the hospital, we decided not to wait for 911 to come to us and we got to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department before its staff could be notified of our arrival.

With no warning we burst in with an undoubtedly overwhelming situation and put our son’s life and family’s future in the hands of strangers. The flurry of activity that surrounded our son was terrifying at the time, but we can now look back on it in a different light.

The professionalism and expert care that he received is something the Nantucket Cottage Hospital staff should be extremely proud of. Not only was the medical care our son received critical to saving his life, but the kindness and support we received as parents was incredible. Beyond that care and comfort, the NCH staff was also exemplary in communicating and coordinating the complex logistics of a transfer by Coast Guard helicopter to Boston Children’s Hospital for emergency brain surgery.

Explaining to us what was going on, handling and explaining the dynamic travel situation to us, and just the overall focus of everyone on protecting my family is something we greatly appreciate. It took two ambulance rides and a Coast Guard helicopter to get our son, myself and my wife, who was eight-months pregnant, to Boston Children’s Hospital, where our son would need lifesaving surgery to relieve the swelling on his brain. We are extremely grateful to Nantucket firefighters Jeff Allen, Chris Holland and Scott Holmes for the safe transport to the waiting Coast Guard helicopter at Nantucket Memorial Airport. With serious thunderstorms throughout the area, Lt. Bill Burwell, Lt. Steven Podmore, AET3 Dan Cote and Petty Officer First Class Justin Munk came to our rescue and got us safely to Boston when we had no other options. The call these men answered that day leaves us forever grateful.

During this ordeal we watched Nantucket Cottage Hospital nurses Courtney Bucholz, Dani Brunelle and (CRNA) Peter Duquette work tirelessly to keep my son stable. We will never forget watching Courtney literally breathing the life into him and Dani’s intense focus on his vitals and well-being. As we were told by our son’s neurosurgeon in Boston, it was the immediate actions by the Nantucket Cottage Hospital emergency department team that were critical in saving his life and amazingly avoiding any long-term brain damage.

To the incredible staff at Boston Children’s and the entire trauma, ICU and neurology teams that helped us and kept us informed during this terrifying time, we cannot thank you enough for your hard work, especially Dr. Scellig Stone and his entire neurology team for their lifesaving effort. Boston Children’s Hospital is an amazing place filled with amazing people that I hope to never visit again, but am more than lucky to know that it is there.

To use the word lifesaving is not solely referring to the life of my son, but the lives of myself, wife, daughter and entire extended family. The tragedy that these people helped us avoid that day is something that is hard to think about, and has even more so enforced the ideal of how special every day with the people you care about is. We would like to thank everyone who helped us that day for every decision they made in their lives that led them to cross our path that day.

We are forever grateful and know that every smile, laugh and special moment from here on is due to the efforts of the many people who worked together to care for our son on that day.

– Ryan and Cara Scotto

Nantucket Cottage Hospital announced Wednesday that it has awarded $381,500 in grant funding to 13 non-profit agencies and other local organizations through its Community Health Initiative, which seeks to address the island’s most pressing health issues through collaborative, innovative, and sustainable programs. 

Capping off its 90^th year in business, The Hospital Thrift Shop on Tuesday set a new record by making its largest ever annual gift to Nantucket Cottage Hospital with a $500,000 donation that will be used to acquire new medical equipment, including the future purchase of a new MRI machine, to enhance patient care at NCH.

The members of the Hospital Thrift Shop Board of Directors presented the check to Nantucket Cottage Hospital’s interim president and CEO Jeanette Ives Erickson Tuesday morning following the conclusion of a busy and successful season in business on India Street. In addition to its gift to NCH, the Hospital Thrift Shop made a separate donation of $10,000 to Palliative & Supportive Care of Nantucket (PASCON) to help facilitate its move into a new office location. The two gifts mark the culmination of the Hospital Thrift Shop’s 90^th anniversary, as the non-profit organization continued to celebrate its impact through nine decades of supporting Nantucket’s hospital.