Priscilla Sarinas, a teacher and mentor to many, has died

Priscilla Sarinas 

Priscilla Sarinas, MD, the former Pulmonary Chief at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, has died. Sarinas was passionate about her work and is widely credited for expanding and modernizing the field of sleep medicine at the Palo Alto VA.

In a letter to faculty, Mark Nicolls, MD, professor and division chief of pulmonary, allergy & critical care medicine and Ware Kuschner, MD, professor of pulmonary, allergy & critical care medicine at the Palo Alto VA, described her as a wonder doctor and sought after teacher and mentor who was “unfailingly kind, thoughtful, and devoted.”

 Dear Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine Community and Friends:

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Priscilla Sarinas MD, former Chief of the Pulmonary Section at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. After graduating medical school at UCSF,  she completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Kaiser Hospital, Santa Clara,  followed by subspecialty training in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Stanford.  She joined the VA as a staff physician in 1985 and served on the Stanford clinical faculty. At the VA, she attended the medical-surgical intensive care unit and on the pulmonary and sleep medicine consultative services.  She served as Chief of the VA Pulmonary Section for 12 years, stepping down in 1998. In later years, she transitioned to Sleep Medicine at PAMF.

As recalled by Michael Gould, MD, MS, Professor of Health Systems Science at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Priscilla was unfailingly kind, thoughtful and devoted to her patients, colleagues, and trainees.  She was widely viewed as a wonderful doctor and a popular teacher and mentor. She became the first Sleep Medicine-boarded physician at the VA and had a major leadership role in expanding and modernizing Sleep Medicine at the VA.  Dr. Rajinder Chitkara noted that Priscilla always found time for her colleagues, her friends, and her family, especially her parents, her husband Kim, and their daughter, Rose Marie. She will be deeply missed by the local biomedical community.

 -Ware Kuschner and Mark Nicolls