93-Year-Old Hospital Volunteer’s Life Saved By St. Luke’s Expert

Bobbie Spilman’s generosity at St. Luke’s involves years of volunteering and including St. Luke’s in her estate plan.

Barbara “Bobbie” Spilman was no stranger to the world of volunteerism—while living in Bethlehem, she worked for numerous charities, including chairing the community staple: Boutique at the Rink. When asked how she became involved at St. Luke’s, she quips, “By pure accident!”

One day, a fellow volunteer at Boutique at the Rink invited Bobbie to help found the St. Luke’s consignment shop, and the rest is history. Eventually, Bobbie was invited to serve as second vice president of the Auxiliary and within eight months, due to unforeseen circumstances, she became president. She laughs that she didn’t even know where the bathrooms were when she took on the role of president, but she quickly learned how special St. Luke's truly was.

Following her role as Auxiliary president, Bobbie served as the representative on the St. Luke’s Board of Trustees for two years and then continued as a regular trustee for an additional eight years. She explains what it was like to serve on the board.

“There were definitely good times but also some difficult times, as the hospital went through some growing pains," she explains. "Mr. Anderson really made things happen.”

One thing Bobbie learned through her volunteer service is that she also wanted to financially support the work of St. Luke’s. She chose to begin with a charitable gift annuity and went on to create an endowment for medical school scholarships for students attending Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine.

Bobbie shared a story about what makes St. Luke’s so unique. She was wintering in Florida when she came down with a bad case of pneumonia. During her treatment, a physician in Florida looked at her X-ray and diagnosed her with Stage IV cancer. She was told to go home to get her affairs in order. Stunned and scared, she called Mr. Richard Anderson, St. Luke’s president and CEO. He advised her to come home and get a second opinion by a St. Luke’s pulmonologist.

The pulmonologist agreed that something was wrong but didn’t believe it was cancer. He prescribed some heavy-duty antibiotics to clear up the pneumonia that he believed was causing the tumors. Thankfully, the pulmonologist was correct. Bobbie fully recovered and, she says, “St. Luke’s came to my rescue in my time of need. I will forever be indebted to the hospital and the physicians for making the correct diagnosis and treating it appropriately.”

Twenty-five years later, Bobbie is now a healthy and extremely active 93-year-old, still volunteering with the Sandhill Cove Foundation and serving as their scholarship chairperson. Bobbie lives part-time in Florida and part-time in the North Georgia mountains. She receives what she feels is good medical care elsewhere now, but is quick to admit that other hospitals just don’t have the St. Luke’s hometown feel. She’s proud to say, “St. Luke’s and Bethlehem will always be home to me.”

Contact Gail A. Evans, MBA, CFRE at +1 484-658-0532 and developmentoffice@sluhn.org to learn how you can show support for St. Luke’s University Health Network and the patients it serves.