GENEVA — Mary Clare Mosho sits at her window watching snow gently drift to the ground and thinks about the time she never thought she had left.

Mosho, 79, of Geneva, knows that she wouldn’t be celebrating this Christmas if it hadn’t been for the Community Christmas Card’s donation of life-saving medical equipment.

“It was a beautiful day in October 2006 and I was sitting on my couch and a horrible pain came over me. I was in a coma for a month. I don’t remember anything,” Mosho said. “My colon ruptured, and Dr. (Amitabh) Goel said the medical equipment they used to save me was donated by the Community Christmas Card.”

The Community Christmas Card is a unique way to send a holiday greeting. Instead of sending individual Christmas cards, the community is encouraged to make donations in any amount to the Community Christmas Card. The donors’ names are published in the Community Christmas Card, a two-page greeting printed in the Christmas Eve Star Beacon.

The Community Christmas Card Fund has raised nearly $220,000 to help purchase life-saving equipment for the Intensive Coronary Care Unit since 1970. This year, contributions will help to purchase an updated telemetry system which is a remote, wireless monitoring of heart rhythms and heart rates. Conversion to digital signaling in early 2009 and changes in frequency mean the telemetry system at UH Geneva Medical Center is outdated. The new telemetry unit is a state-of-the-art system designed to provide safe and continuous cardiac monitoring for patients and to deliver critical data for medical staff.

This year’s donations will also be earmarked to purchase a noninvasive hemoglobin monitor for the ICCU. This state of the art device will allow physicians to accurately measure and continuously monitor hemoglobin levels, eliminating the need for repeated blood draws. The hemoglobin monitor will allow physicians to promptly identify occult bleeding in critically ill patients and to allow rapid and accurate clinical decisions, Goel said.

During her three-week stay in the ICCU in 2006, Mosho suffered kidney failure and pneumonia along with her ruptured colon. She said she was amazed at the care she received at GMC.

“I moved here from Alabama and lived most of my life in Pittsburgh,” Mosho said. “We always thought of Geneva as this little hospital, but I can’t believe how well that little hospital is run. And to know the community cares enough to make it the best hospital it can be is great.”

Mosho’s husband, George, died and Mosho spent another 10 days at GMC, again because of her colon. Those trials have led Mosho to a new life, she said.

“I am so grateful for this time,” she said. “I honestly feel like I started a new life. I visited my son in Illinois for Thanksgiving and now I feel like I can do anything.”

Mosho said she will make a donation to the Community Christmas Card this year to help Goel help others.

“I know I am here because of the doctor and his skill and the equipment available for his use,” Mosho said. “If that equipment saved my life, imagine the other lives it saved, too.”

Wednesday is the final day to donate to the Community Christmas Card.

Contributions can be made at any bank in Geneva, or can be mailed to any committee member.

Committee members are: Judy Robson, 70 Crown Point; Janey Jones, 630 Eastwood St.; Kay Raymond, 5549 Roxbury Ave.; Judy Pearson, 213 N. Broadway; Cathy Brashear, 536 Chestnut St.; Tracy Clutter, 4617 Fairway Drive; Jan Perala, 201 E. Sturgeon Point, all of Geneva; and Marianne Sezon Dana, 1461 Ravinewood Drive; Jen Marrison, 1853 Clay St., both of Austinburg Township.