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A quirk of fate has inspired two Caians to give to support present and future students. 

Eleanor Congdon (History PhD 1993) was critically ill with a heart problem. Doctors had decided to turn off life support on July 25, 2022 at 3pm. That very day, a new doctor, on his noon rounds of the intensive care unit, suggested a second opinion should be sought for her from another hospital where cardiac care was a speciality. 

One phone call later, Eleanor’s medical notes were sent for review. She was accepted immediately for transfer. Thirteen hours later she was life-flighted from Youngstown, Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio. This is where (Epidemiology MPhil 2013) became involved: he was the heart surgeon among the many at that hospital who had the training and skill to treat her. On August 3, Daniel took charge of a 5-hour operation, replacing the mitral valve, fixing the hole in her heart, and ultimately saving her life.

Eleanor says Daniel described her heart issue as “a classic case of degenerative calcium”, which she attributed to daily supplements to stave off osteoporosis. In her case, the additional calcium was not needed: it formed crystals inside the heart, eventually shredding the valve and puncturing the heart wall. “It's not your typical heart disease but Dr Burns says it is becoming more common,” she adds.

The ������ connection was unknown at this point. It was only in post-surgery that it became apparent. Eleanor had seen Daniel’s Cambridge education listed in a gallery of the surgeons in the hospital building; Daniel had noted Eleanor’s years at Cambridge in her case chart.

Eleanor says: “I don't think I asked him, but I think he volunteered that he was at ������ and Caius. And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is this is too good to be true! Saved by one of our own’.”  She points out that she has not met any other ������ & Caius graduates since she took her PhD degree at a July 1997 ceremony.

“It was a strange bit of serendipity,” Daniel adds.

Eleanor, pictured left, showing the scar from her operation, and Daniel, right

Eleanor is an in Ohio, United States, having completed her PhD at Caius under the supervision of about Medieval Mediterranean trade.

She had shared accommodation at Mill Road, Grange Road, and Harvey Road with medical students during the three years when she was in Cambridge.  She decided to donate to the present and next generation of Caius medics following the operation.

Eleanor says: “I felt this was a way I could honour Daniel for saving my life with his surgery. I kept thinking of all the medics that I roomed with… it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Daniel came to Caius during his cardiac surgery residency to pursue higher training in research methodology and statistics, but he had actually studied philosophy as an undergraduate. Aware of the funding gap in the humanities, he was sensitive to the need for more funding of degrees in these subjects, including history. Whereas Eleanor had always directed her charitable giving to the humanities in the past, and upon learning of her gift in his honour, Daniel felt that supporting a postgraduate scholarship in the humanities would be a meaningful gesture in return for Eleanor’s gift to the medical sciences.

Since Eleanor’s surgery, Daniel has left The Cleveland Clinic to return to his native Canada to work at the University of Toronto and St Michael’s Hospital. Commenting upon Eleanor’s surgery and the reciprocal gifts to Caius, he says: “If someone doesn't pick up that phone, none of this happens… It's interesting to see how not only did it happen, but how these connections have now spurred on something that's got quite a bit of steam going forward.”

Eleanor now is determined to finish off a near-30-year endeavour which began at Caius. She says: “When I woke up, one of my questions was ‘why did I get saved?’ My conviction is that I still have unfinished work:  revising my dissertation for publication. There were two chapters about which I was too much of a perfectionist. Almost 30 years later, it is still not done. That is my greatest regret in life:  over the course of my career as a teacher, I have not found the time to finish the revisions of my own original research in order to publish it. That is what Doctor Burns gave back to me– the chance to finish my Cambridge work.”

Eleanor at Caius - in ������ Court, left, and in the garden at Harvey Road, right