Dick and Betti Robinson
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Betti Robinson felt so terrible she considered writing a letter to say goodbye to her children.
“I’d never been sick a day in my life. Then in March 2023 my whole body started swelling,” Betti recalls. “Nobody could identify the cause. It was a dark time.”
After Betti was admitted to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Arizona, the answer arrived, in the form of Cushing syndrome.
“Her body was producing too much cortisol,” says Dick Robinson, Betti’s husband. “Her doctors thought the cause was a small tumor in her lung. Her surgeon removed the tumor and a small amount of tissue around it. Everything changed. Betti started feeling better almost overnight.”
While still in the hospital, the Robinsons started discussing a gift in appreciation of Mayo Clinic’s care.
“We wanted to honor the doctors and do something that would help others,” says Dick.
If our gift helps bring in one new researcher who finds one new thing to help people, then it was a huge success.
— Dick Robinson
The Robinsons’ gift helps fund the recruitment of top scientists to Mayo Clinic in Arizona. It honors the team that cared for Betti, which included Staci Beamer, M.D.; Craig Jenkins, D.O.; Laszlo Vaszar, M.D.; and Julia Files, M.D. Mayo Clinic recognizes the Robinsons, who live in Scottsdale, Arizona, as Major Benefactors for their generosity.
“If our gift helps bring in one new researcher who finds one new thing to help people, then it was a huge success,” Dick says.
Recruitment funds like the Robinsons’ gift facilitate life-changing discoveries by helping Mayo Clinic attract top clinicians and scientists and provide them with other support to accelerate their research.
With Betti’s health restored, she and Dick are back to their favorite pastimes: golfing; traveling; watching University of Nebraska football; and spending time with their three sons, three daughters-in-law and eight grandchildren.