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My name is Michael Clores.
Three years ago I was diagnosed with leukemia.

At the beginning of my chemotherapy treatment, I developed serious complications that nearly ended my life. During these critical weeks, a related paralytic coma caused the muscles in my body to deteriorate. I had lost my ability to eat, talk, and walk.

My parents chose St. Mary’s Hospital for Children for my rehabilitation because of its reputation. I credit my successful recovery and where I am today to the staff and programs of St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s therapists gradually helped me recover my ability to speak and eat after I lost these capabilities because of a tracheotomy. Physical and occupational therapists motivated me to perform daily functions, and the skillful doctors made sure I stayed on course with my recovery. The nurses and technicians not only gave me my medications, they also became my friends.

St. Mary’s restored my health and after three months I was able to go back into the real world, contrary to the pessimistic predictions about the speed of my recovery. In the same year, I completed my junior year of Chaminade High School. The next year I played basketball, attended my senior prom, and graduated on time with my friends. Today, I am a college student and have just completed years of chemotherapy. I hope to become a doctor and use the gifts, abilities, and strengths I have developed over the last few years. I will always remember, however, that a huge part of my success is attributed to my experiences at St. Mary’s.

2004 Accomplishments

St. Mary’s Nears $100 Million in its 135th Year

After years of double-digit growth, St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children is projected to generate a $98 million operating budget in 2005 through expanded services for its young patients in all five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland counties.

As one of the largest and most respected providers of long-term, pediatric care and rehabilitation in the United States, St. Mary’s brings hope and healing to nearly 4,000 seriously ill children on any given day in inpatient, outpatient, and home care settings.

Since it was founded in 1870 as New York City’s first free children’s hospital, St. Mary’s has evolved into a comprehensive system that includes St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Center for Children in Ossining, and St. Mary’s Community Programs with home care offices in Yonkers, Melville, and New Hyde Park.

2004 Highlights
St. Mary’s was one of only three organizations to receive the American Hospital Association’s Circle of Life Award for excellence in end-of-life care. (Eileen Chisari, RN, Vice President of Inpatient Care and Edwin Simpser, MD, Chief Medical Officer, far right, with representatives from the American Hospital Association

One of several programs in the nation, St. Mary’s Center for Pediatric Feeding Disorders appointed its first director, an internationally renowned expert, Ramasamy Manikam, PhD (center).

Daniel Coletti, PhD, will direct St. Mary’s new Research Institute, which will foster clinical research to help improve the care for children with special health needs. One such project is a collaborative study on the treatment of low bone density with researchers from Harvard University.

Instituted a new procedure with new medical equipment (Flexible Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing with Sensory Testing), which establishes St. Mary’s as the only pediatric, post-acute facility in New York State capable of conducting non-invasive evaluations of children with swallowing problems.

(L to R) Drs. Nirali Vakil,
Sylvia Villares, and Marsha Medows,
expand the medical team at St. Mary’s.

Early Intervention Helps Kids Maximize Their Potential

The children treated in St. Mary’s Early Intervention (EI) program have cognitive, developmental, social, and emotional needs due to a variety of issues, such as complications of prematurity, hearing loss, injury, or cerebral palsy. The specially trained pediatric therapists at St. Mary’s help overcome these challenges through physical and occupational therapy for gross motor delays (eg, unable to walk) and fine motor delays (eg, unable to hold a crayon). Children who have trouble forming words and speaking will work with speech pathologists or augmentative communication devices to allow them to communicate. Over the long term, EI will improve children’s overall health management and potentially prevent their need for additional therapeutic services, special education, and/or surgery.

The EI program serves children in the hospital, homes, and day-care settings. With continued support from donors, St. Mary’s can help all at-risk children in New York.

The EI program is funded and regulated by the New York State Department of Health and by the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, Westchester Department of Health, Nassau County Department of Health, and Suffolk County Department of Health.

When Natalie was born she
was a healthy, happy baby.
After six weeks she suddenly stopped eating well and began to lose weight dramatically. A feeding tube was placed to provide Natalie with enough nutrition and stop her weight loss. However, Natalie’s problems persisted and she began to exhibit other developmental delays. Unlike other children her age, Natalie couldn’t sit up or roll over on her own. Her doctors referred her to St. Mary’s Early Intervention Program. Consequently, her parents discovered that Natalie’s delays were caused by a rare genetic disorder. Today, Natalie receives home visits several times a week for physical, speech, occupational, and feeding therapy. Her weight has stabilized and she is able to sit up, roll over, and recently began walking. With ongoing support from St. Mary’s EI program, Natalie will continue to develop physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively.

Beyond the Rainbow
Jeanne and James Beggins’ recently published journal entitled “A Book of James,” offers a glimpse into the lives of their family and the emotional roller coaster they endured during the short life of their infant son, James (pictured below). Born with severe complications, James spent several months in St. Mary’s Palliative Care Program at the hospital in Bayside until he passed away. Their wish for the journal is to help comfort parents whose children have died and to “know their children wait for them beyond the rainbow.” Jeanne and her husband James continue to visit and support the nursery at the hospital.

“The Beggins’ family has been wonderful to St. Mary’s; every year the nursery creates a wish list of items and the Beggins’ bring everything on the list,” says Audrey Berman, MD, St. Mary’s Assistant Medical Director.

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