Mercy Medical Center

City police said they were investigating an unusual armed robbery that took place Tuesday afternoon on the third-floor of a downtown hospital. The robbery was reported around 1:10 p.m. at Mercy Medical Center's McAuley Tower, in the 300 block of St. Paul Pl. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said two hospital employees were robbed of cash from their personal belongings. The incident prompted police to set up a perimeter around the hospital. Silbert said police were reviewing surveillance camera footage and were exploring whether the robbery was tied to another that took place recently in the same area.

Carmel Quinn, a homemaker and volunteer, died of a heart attack Sunday at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 83. Born Mary Katherine Carmel Fay in Belturbet, in County Cavan, Ireland, she moved to Baltimore in 1952 after her marriage to Dr. Michael Kevin Quinn, a physician and general practitioner who was also born in her hometown. She worked as a receptionist briefly at Mercy Medical Center after moving to Baltimore. Mrs. Quinn lived in the Hampton section of Towson for many years and played tennis with friends and neighbors.

At least 260 Mercy Medical Center employees will be relocated as the medical center seeks to save money by not renewing two office building leases. Mercy expects to save $1.3 million by letting the leases expire on offices at Tide Point and 225 N. Calvert St. The decision was first reported by the Baltimore Business Journal. The offices are used for administrative tasks like billing. The lease at Tide Point for 25,600 square feet will end this spring, and the lease for 30,000 square feet at North Calvert Street will end in July.

Dr. Franz Xavier Groll, a retired physician who lived and practiced on Eager Street in downtown Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, died of pulmonary thrombosis April 2 at Keswick Multi-Care Center. He was 95. Born in Aalen in Germany, he was the son of a forest manager who was also a gamekeeper. He grew up at the time of Adolf Hitler's rise and was a member of the German Youth Movement. He studied medicine at the Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg and served in the German army as a combat physician attached to a Panzer division.

The palm trees swayed in the mezzanine hallway at Baltimore's Waterfront Marriott. Not from the swell of tropical breezes. Probably more the swells in the tropical crowd gathered there for Mercy Medical Center's 16th annual "Mercy Magic" gala, this year given the theme "Mercy Mambo!" Some 600 festively attired folk swirled through the corridor, stopping to try their luck at casino-style games, or shaking things up with castanets and maracas. The doors to the ballroom opened, revealing a Latin band performing before a jungle of palm centerpieces on the dining tables.

Genevieve H. Wilson, a partner in the Inner Harbor Marina of Baltimore Inc., died of cancer Tuesday at Stella Maris Hospice at Mercy Medical Center. She was 87. The former Ashburton resident had lived at Harbor Court Hotel and Condominiums since its opening in 1986. She was born Genevieve Evans in Memphis, Tenn., where she was raised. After graduating from high school, she attended Lemoyne College. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she worked as a disc jockey on KSTL Radio in St. Louis before going to work in Chicago as a national advertising sales representative for Johnson Publications.

The Rev. Bernard J. Suppe, the longtime chaplain at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore who overcame a tragic childhood to spread joy and hope to the sick and dying, died of a stroke Saturday at the hospital. He was 82. Over the past year, Father Suppe maintained his wry humor and good spirits despite deteriorating health that included operations on his spine, a total hip replacement and the implanting of a pacemaker in his chest. Bent nearly in half and hobbling around the hospital with the aid of a walker, Father Suppe told a reporter for The Catholic Review last month: "I'm bent over now, but my back is not me. My heart, soul and mind are very erect.

Ann C. Scott, a retired medical technologist who was devoted to the Sisters of Mercy, died of liver disease Sunday at her Parkville home. She was 75. Ann Carr Scott was born in Baltimore and raised in the city's Walbrook neighborhood. She was educated by the Sisters of Mercy from first grade through her graduation in 1947 from the old St. Agnes High School in Mount Washington. "It was during the later part of her schooling that she met Sister Paula Marie Phelan, who became the most influential person in her life," said Tamia Karpeles, a daughter-in-law.

The greatest risk factor for cataracts, which occur when the eye's natural lens hardens and becomes cloudy, is aging, says Dr. Sheri Rowen, director of the Eye and Cosmetic Surgery Center at Mercy Medical Center. In fact, by the time they reach the age of 80, more than 50 percent of all Americans have a cataract or have been treated for cataracts with a relatively simple surgical procedure. Millions of people a year have cataract surgery. What are cataracts? Cataracts are the clouding and hardening of the natural, God-given lens of the eye [made mostly of protein and water, the lens is the clear part of the eye that helps to focus light on the retina]

Ending a federal lawsuit that claimed Baltimore abused its power to condemn property, the owners of a downtown law office building said yesterday they've agreed to sell their property and drop their lawsuit against the city. Paul Kramer, an attorney who is co-owner of the 233 St. Paul Pl. office building, said he sent U.S. District Judge Frederic N. Smalkin notice yesterday that he will not pursue his lawsuit, which sought to block a condemnation ordinance passed May 7 by the City Council.

City police said they were investigating an unusual armed robbery that took place Tuesday afternoon on the third-floor of a downtown hospital. The robbery was reported around 1:10 p.m. at Mercy Medical Center's McAuley Tower, in the 300 block of St. Paul Pl. Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman, said two hospital employees were robbed of cash from their personal belongings. The incident prompted police to set up a perimeter around the hospital. Silbert said police were reviewing surveillance camera footage and were exploring whether the robbery was tied to another that took place recently in the same area.

At least 260 Mercy Medical Center employees will be relocated as the medical center seeks to save money by not renewing two office building leases. Mercy expects to save $1.3 million by letting the leases expire on offices at Tide Point and 225 N. Calvert St. The decision was first reported by the Baltimore Business Journal. The offices are used for administrative tasks like billing. The lease at Tide Point for 25,600 square feet will end this spring, and the lease for 30,000 square feet at North Calvert Street will end in July.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently received a gag gift of protective headgear after she suffered a concussion and blood clot near her brain after a fall. While Clinton can now make light of the injuries, a blood clot can be a serious health risk that can lead to death. Dr. James L. Frazier, III, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, talks about the dangers. What causes a blood clot to form in the brain? A blood clot or thrombus can form in the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

Dr. William Allan Dear Jr., an internist and former head of the division of nuclear medicine at Mercy Medical Center who also was a practicing magician, died July 20 of heart disease at Union Memorial Hospital. The longtime Guilford resident was 80. "He was the father of nuclear medicine at Mercy," said Dr. Louis E. Grenzer, a Baltimore internist and cardiologist who had known Dr. Dear since they both were residents at Mercy. "In the early 1970s, when they were new, he was doing the first echocardiograms and ultrasounds at Mercy.

With the extreme heat, and even in less extreme temperatures, those who spend any time outside must stay properly hydrated. Some drinks are better than others, and some people need more fluids than others, says Dr. Marc I. Leavey, an internist at Mercy Medical Center and Lutherville Personal Physicians. Should people drink mineral/vitamin waters or Gatorade? And what about energy drinks (i.e., Red Bull, Rockstar): Are they dangerous? What about alcoholic drinks? For dehydration from exercise and heat, cool water is still the best.

When she heard Mercy Medical Center was going to celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day on Sunday, Megan Campbell knew she had to be there. The doctors and nurses at Mercy are, after all, the reason her two kids got to know their grandmother. The six years since her mother, Priscilla "Jo" Jones, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Campbell said, have meant the world to her family. At the time, Campbell was pregnant, and she wasn't even sure Jones would see the birth of her first grandchild.

Avascular necrosis is a disorder of the bone. It affects the ends of long bones, primarily the hip, but the knee and shoulder and ankle can also be affected, says Dr. Marc W. Hungerford, director of joint replacement and reconstruction at Mercy Medical Center. In avascular necrosis the circulation in the bone is interrupted and dead spots can appear. If these dead spots are close enough to the joint, then the joint can collapse and the patient can develop arthritis of the involved joint.

A reader of our Picture of Health blog asked recently how to distinguish the symptoms of heartburn from the symptoms of a heart attack. It turns out to be harder than you might think. Dr. Richard A. Desi, a gastroenterologist at the Institute for Digestive Health and Liver Disease at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, discussed how to tell the difference. "That's actually not a very easy question," Desi said. "It's a difficult question for patients and for doctors." One key, he said, is to look for what are considered the classic symptoms of each.

Mothers who deliver their babies at Mercy Medical Center will soon do so with an expansive view of the Baltimore skyline. That is one of the features of the hospital's new Family Childbirth and Children's Center that will open in June. The $41.5 million project is the second phase of a new hospital building the medical center began moving into December 2010. The childbirth and children's center will occupy three floors of the The Mary Catherine Bunting Center. The new 70,000-square-foot center will focus on family-centered care with a goal of keeping mothers and babies together as much as possible.

Dr. Ronald L. Gutberlet, a retired pediatrician who was a specialist in the care of premature infants, died of metastatic bladder cancer Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. The Cockeysville resident was 78. Born in Baltimore, he attended the Cathedral School and was a 1952 Loyola High School graduate. He earned a degree at Washington and Lee University and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1961. Dr. Gutberlet completed his residency at the University of Maryland and spent time as a young physician at Mercy Medical Center in downtown Baltimore, where he later returned.