MATTHEW GERDISCH: IN MEMORIAM A LIFE “WELL-LOVED”
(MAY 19, 1999 - DECEMBER 14, 2019)
BY MARY O’MALLEY
Matthew was a student in my Sixth and Eighth Grade Language
“Matthew always talked about a career in science and
Arts classes. He graced my front row with his effervescent
medicine. Each time he would visit my operating room,
personality, insatiably curious nature, and reassuring smile. He
he would have the most insightful questions, posed to me
willingly shared his true unabridged self with his classmates
with the predicate “Dad” followed by a new inquisition
and his teachers. His love of life and learning manifested itself
into my last or next move, as my chest nearly burst
during every aspect of his day. He never failed to genuinely chat
through my gown with pride. His path was cemented
with me before or after class because he truly cared about my
though when Matthew was introduced to arrythmia
day as well. I remember him politely explaining the difference
surgery,” explained Dr. Gerdisch. “He already had a
between a cardiologist and a heart surgeon during one of our
cursory knowledge of arrythmia, as he suffered from
vocabulary lessons. He proceeded to talk so proudly of his
inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Now, he was enamored of
father, Dr. Gerdisch, a heart surgeon, sharing with us not only
the crossroads of physics, physiology and anatomy intrinsic in
his own knowledge of the field at such a young age but also his
electrophysiology, and its merger with surgery, a discipline for
desire to study medicine and help others.
which he knew himself to be well suited. Matthew found his path in life, to be a physician treating heart rhythm disease.
