By O’Dell Isaac
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Marilyn Gifford, a longtime emergency physician regarded as the “godmother of emergency medical services” in Colorado Springs, has died, according to her family. She was 80 years old.
A trailblazer in a field that had very few women in it, Gifford was widely acknowledged not only as a standout emergency physician, but as the architect of many of the emergency procedures currently in place in Colorado Springs.
“When someone in Colorado Springs calls 911 today, a lot of what happens between that call and the hospital are a result of Marilyn’s medical direction and input,” said Matt Angelidis, UCHealth’s emergency services medical director.
“As an emergency physician, she was outstanding,” said Eric Caplan, Gifford’s son. “But it didn’t stop there. She truly loved the people she worked with and the city she worked for.”
A Denver native and Aurora Central High School graduate, Gifford was a competitive horseback rider whose love of animals made her consider a career as a veterinarian. After earning an undergraduate degree at Michigan State University, she attended medical school at Mount Sinai.
At the time she graduated from medical school, entering the field of emergency medicine was a bold choice, and a lonely one, Caplan said.
“At that time, in the 1960s, there weren’t many women in medicine at all,” he said. “In emergency medicine, there were almost none.”
After medical school, Gifford continued to walk a path with few footprints to guide her, including a stint in the Navy. When she joined Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department in 1980, she began a more than 30-year career that touched hundreds of personal and professional lives and brought changes in the way emergency patients are treated in the field.
“There wasn’t a standardized approach to caring for patients in the field, and she was concerned and frustrated about that,” Caplan said. “But instead of waiting around for it to happen, she did something about it. She wrote a protocol.”
The protocol helped streamline emergency responses by getting paramedics, firefighters and other first responders on the same page regarding pre-hospital care.
“Early access to care is critical to improving outcomes,” Caplan said. “She created a handbook, a guideline to help first responders have the tools and the training to give the patient the best chance of survival.”
Gifford was the original physician in charge of 911 response for Colorado Springs and was instrumental in the development of the city’s 911 system, Angelidis said.
“She is often referred to as the founder of emergency medical care for the Memorial (now UCHealth) hospital system,” said Angelidis, who now serves in the role Gifford vacated when she retired in 2013.
“Most of the protocols, guidelines and health care you receive in a pre-hospital setting is a direct result of her influence, passion and commitment.”
Gifford also had an active role in training and certifying paramedics.
“If you had Dr. Gifford’s signature on your certificate, it meant you had completed the highest level of pre-hospital training standards,” Caplan said.
A fiercely supportive mother and doting grandmother, Gifford was as passionate about her family as she was about her profession.
“I always said that if I could be half the parent and half the physician that she was, I’d be doing OK,” Caplan said. “I still work toward that goal every single day.”
Gifford died peacefully on Tuesday, surrounded by loved ones, according to her family. She is survived by longtime partner Stanley Boehm, brother Steve, sons Eric and Brian Caplan, five grandchildren and a host of relatives and admiring colleagues.
“She’s going to be deeply missed by the healthcare community and our city,” Angelidis said. “All of us who practice emergency health care in this city — in hospitals, or in the backs of ambulances — owe her an immense debt of gratitude.”
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