Humble doc shovels patient's walkway in snowstorm, gives her ride to surgery

Edina Patch may have the best feel-good story of the day – the tale of surgeon Bill Omlie, who came to the aid of an 89-year-old patient in more ways than one.

The good doc got word from staff earlier this month that his scheduled surgery on Lorraine Scatieno would have to be scrubbed because of a snowstorm – she couldn't make it in, Patch reports.

But Omlie, a surgeon with Fairview Southdale Hospital's Surgical Consultants, was worried about delaying the important procedure. So he went to her house, asked her for a shovel and dug out her walkway, Patch says.

Then he drove her in, right up to the valet door at the hospital. She was shocked.

“I couldn’t say enough good things about Dr. Omlie,” she told Patch. “He doesn’t flaunt anything; he was just as humble as could be."

Omlie said it was "just snow."

"It’s not like we had a tornado,” Omlie told Patch. “I would go pick up my mother, so why not go pick up Lorraine?”

His Fairview page says, "I’ve enjoyed surgery all my life. My profession allows me the privilege of interacting with my patients and their families."