Personal Giving Stories

Marc Puleo, M.D. ’91, Res ’95, remembers James Feld, M.D., professor of clinical anesthesiology at UIC, for both his rigor and his good cheer. “When we were rounding in the intensive care unit, we literally would spend 45 minutes to an hour on each patient,” he recalls. “Dr. Feld went over every detail to make sure we clearly understood it.”

At the same time, “he taught with a smile on his face,” Puleo says. “Dr. Feld encouraged both academic and clinical excellence while always focusing on self-improvement.”

The founder of PetMed Express, Inc., an online veterinary pharmacy, Puleo recently made a significant six-figure bequest commitment to the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine that, combined with the generous contributions of other donors, completed the funding for the James M. Feld, M.D., Professorship in Anesthesiology.

“Of all the attending physicians I had the honor of working with during my residency, Dr. Feld stood out to me as being the best clinician,” Puleo says. “He was an important figure in my education, and I felt he should be recognized for all the effort he puts into educating residents.”

A member of the UIC faculty since 1989, Feld was director of the residency program from 1989 to 2000 and trained more than 400 anesthesiology residents, including Puleo. The recipient of numerous teaching awards, he was the president of the medical staff of the University of Illinois Medical Center from 2006 to 2008 and has been associate medical officer for surgical services since 2004.

“In education, you never know who you’re going to have an influence on, and it’s very gratifying to know I had such an impact on Marc,” Feld says. “To have a professorship named after me is an enormous honor. I hope the physicians who hold the professorship in the future can use it to broaden the horizons of anesthesia.”

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