SOM student Sarah Lively receives Pat Fedeles award

The ninth winner of the Patricia “Pat” Fedeles Award for Compassion in Physical Diagnosis was Sarah Lively. This award recognizes a second-year medical student who portrays ongoing compassion, friendliness and an overall caring attitude toward patients, peers, faculty and staff.

Pictured, from left, are Fedeles's daughter Cheryl Walton, Fedeles's granddaughter Patricia Marthey, Fedeles's husband Darrell Fedeles, Lively and WVU Department of Family Medicine Professor Dorian Williams, M.D.

Pat Fedeles served as coordinator for the WVU School of Medicine Introduction to Clinical Medicine and Physical Diagnosis courses from 1992 until 2006 when she retired while battling with cancer. She passed away in January 2007.

Fedeles gave unconditionally to everyone who came in contact with her, always treating people fairly and with a caring attitude. Fedeles truly enjoyed working with the students and strived to make each one feel special and confident in achieving his or her goals. It was important to Fedeles that students learned the proper "bedside manner" of patient care. While emphasizing that each patient should be treated as a human being and not just a number, that is exactly how Fedeles treated her students: with unconditional compassion and understanding.

Lively portrays all of the above characteristics and was nominated by her peers. On March 24, she was presented with a certificate and a WVU Bookstore gift certificate.