Reverend Gino Donatelli, SJ
Gino Donatelli, SJ, is a familiar, friendly face to the patients at Loyola University Health System. As the chaplain in the Pastoral Care and Education Department, he brings cheer and support to patients and their loved ones at the medical center.
When he’s not roaming the halls of the hospital, “Father Gino” (as he’s known to his friends at Loyola) accompanies the medical students on their immersion trips to Latin America. It was the hassle of traveling with spare glasses, contact lenses and all the accessories that made him consider laser vision correction surgery.
“When you’re in a third-world country, it really slows you down to have to worry about all that,” he said. “On one trip to a remote area of the Dominican Republic, I broke my glasses, and it was nearly impossible to find a replacement pair.”
After meeting with the Loyola Laser Vision Center team, Donatelli was ready to say goodbye to glasses forever. After the procedure, he recalls, “The experience was amazingly easy.”
The improvement to his vision also was a surprise. “I expected to still have to wear reading glasses to see the fine print in the sports pages,” he said. “But since the procedure, I can see everything just fine with monovision.”
Donatelli marvels at the convenience laser vision correction surgery has afforded him. “I’ll never have to worry about packing a suitcase full of saline solution again,” he says with a big smile. Since undergoing laser vision correction at Loyola, he has the luxury of packing light.