Dr. George Hartnell holds the lives of many people in his capable hands.

In his specialty of Vascular and Special Interventions, Dr. Hartnell examines the most fragile but intensely life-sustaining structures of his patients' anatomies – their arteries.

Dr. Hartnell is the most widely experienced cardiovascular and interventional radiologist in the region with 25-plus years in vascular and interventional radiology. He uses minimally invasive technology to treat certain cancers, peripheral artery disease, uterine fibroids and other conditions.

He is committed to saving lives. Like Dr. Edward Levitz's.

In January 2008, Dr. Levitz went to Baystate Medical Center to report symptoms including weight loss and abdominal pain that occurred after eating. He was 88 years old then, and Dr. Hartnell, who formerly worked at the Springfield hospital, treated him.

Dr. Levitz, a retired surgeon from Enfield, Conn., had many other complicating conditions, includingperipheral artery disease, diabetes, prostate cancer and other serious medical concerns. His problem at that time, Dr. Hartnell says, was narrowing of the two major arteries that lead to the stomach and bowel. Dr. Hartnell widened those pathways by inserting stents in them.

Dr. Levitz has been a patient ever since, following Dr. Hartnell to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, where Dr. Hartnell arrived in October 2008. He first saw Dr. Levitz at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in December 2008.

"He has kept my father alive for over a year now," says Dr. Levitz's son, Alan Levitz, also of Enfield, Conn. "He's kept him alive and given him a quality of life he can live with."

Dr. Hartnell is board certified in diagnostic radiology, vascular and interventional radiology, endovascular medicine and cardiovascular CT. He has held academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins and most recently was Professor of Radiology at Tufts.

He specializes in vascular diseases, and says treating patients with advanced vascular disease is a lifetime commitment. "You can't leave them," he says. "You have a responsibility."

Their condition is potentially lethal, and Dr. Hartnell says follow-up care requires a fair amount of skill. "People with really advanced vascular disease need to be followed up by a vascular specialist," he says. "It's a complicated thing to balance their continued medical treatment with timing for vascular interventions."

Says Alan of Dr. Hartnell, "He cares. He truly takes an interest in people."