Meet the REAL Dr. Lotto…Woman Who Won Florida Lottery Still a Practicing E.R. Doc
This is the story of Shirley Press, a doctor in Miami.
She won the lottery in 2001, didn’t tell anyone…and continued practicing.
It’s a cool story and she is a cool person.
Meanwhile, a note of confession. Her story was recently told on TV’s “How the Lottery Changed My Life,” a good show on TLC network. I almost worked for them. But, due to a conflict of interest, I had to bow out.
Back to Press.
Here is the backstory as related to the Miami Herald newspaper.
The story goes back to 2001.
When Jackson Memorial Hospital (in Miami) doctor Press heard that someone at work had won the lottery, she told co-workers, “That person is going to be such an oddball — they aren’t going to fit in anywhere.”
She was the “oddball.”
Over the following week, the 50-year-old mother of two teenagers and director of pediatric emergency care would try to keep a semblance of a normal life as word spread about her fortune — a lump sum that after taxes amounted to about $17 million.
Did it change her life?
You betcha.
But Press still works regularly as a doctor at Jackson.
Her children — now grown — are self-supporting.
The lottery winnings helped start one charitable foundation and benefited another.
Press was a weekly lottery ticket buyer. “It was like everybody else — a fantasy.”
On Sept. 5, 2001, the fantasy came true.
She bought six Quick Pick tickets.
Word spread the next day at Jackson that someone there had won the lottery.
Press returned to her Miami Beach home that night and hunted around for her tickets.
“I finally found the tickets in my lab coat.”
Press compared the numbers — they matched.
“Oh, my God — my eyes were bugging out back and forth,” she recalled. “I announced, ‘I think I won the lottery.’ ”
Her husband, William Rapoport, didn’t believe her. Her daughter Sarah asked to see the ticket and the newspaper. Confirmed. Sarah screamed.
Press’ lawyer told her to make copies and put the original in a safe deposit box.
The next morning Press made copies, then went to work but said nothing to co-workers.
That weekend, she told a few close friends and relatives.
On Monday night, the lottery commission called her lawyer to confirm she had won. The next morning was Sept. 11, 2001.
“I felt so horrible,” Press said. “I have this good thing happen to me and this tragic thing happened to the world.”
Later that same week, she picked up her money. She returned to work a few days later.
“Most people were shocked,” she said. “Most of it was good. Mixed emotions — happy for me, sad that it didn’t happen to them.”
Some grumbled about why a doctor — married to an optometrist — needed to win.
“I am the first one to say, ‘You’re right.’ Did I deserve to win? No. Nobody deserves to win, or everybody deserves to win. It’s random.”
Press kept working part time as an attending physician in the pediatric ER.
Now 59, she averages a day a week.
“This is my identity — I am a physician,” she said. “I still have the motivation to help people.”
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Posted on September 4, 2010 by DocLotto | Filed Under Lottery, Stories
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