Phyllis' Story

In 1938, Phyllis Meyerhoff was just four years old when she fell ill with rheumatic fever. Although today we know that rheumatic fever is a complication that can arise after a strep infection, which we can fight with antibiotics, in the 1930s the condition was diagnosed with a stethoscope and treated with strict bed rest. Phyllis recovered at MWPH – then called Happy Hills Convalescent Home – for nine months, seeing her parents and brother only on Sundays. 

“I have always felt that I was so fortunate to have this facility available in our community, where I could get the care and professional attention that I needed,” Phyllis said. “I credit my complete recovery from the disease to the care I received.”

Years later, Phyllis became involved with MWPH once again, this time as a fundraising committee member and eventually as a member of the hospital’s foundation board. In 2021, Phyllis’s special connection and long history of commitment to MWPH were honored with the unveiling of the Phillis C. Meyerhoff Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Rehabilitation – the same unit where she would have been a patient.