Thursday, 4:30 PM
One killed, four injured when car slams into Brockton Hospital entrance
(Brockton Hospital photo)
Dr. Mark Vasa was a well-respected radiation oncologist.
By Milton Valencia, Globe Staff
One person was killed and four were injured when a car slammed into the front entrance of the radiation treatment center at Brockton Hospital this afternoon.
Dr. Mark Vasa, 58, chief of radiation therapy at the hospital, died in the accident. Vasa had worked at the hospital for 20 years.
Police said the driver, a 76-year-old woman, lost control of the car at about 1.30 p.m. on Centre Street and went through the front doors, hitting a reception desk.
One of the injured was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital and is in critical condition, officials said. The other injured people, including the driver, were treated and released from the hospital.
"All of the services needed to assist these people were here immediately," said Fire Chief Kenneth Galligan.
Vasa was well-respected within the insular community of radiation oncologists in Massachusetts, having last year been named a fellow of the American College of Radiology.
Dr. Max Rosen, a past president of the Massachusetts Radiological Society, said Vasa valued the doctor-patient relationship.
"He felt that a field advances by each relationship you have with a patient," said Rosen, a radiology oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "How you act and how you take care of people on an individual basis ... is how you make your mark on medicine."
Rosen said the society recommended Vasa for the American College of Radiology, which he said is an honor a relatively small number of radiologists can claim.
The hospital said the radiation therapy center would be closed tomorrow, but it had not sustained structural damage and would reopen Wednesday.
