Leni and Peter W. May, center, with, from left, son Jon May, daughter-in-law Juliana May, daughter Leslie May Blauner, and son-in-law Andrew Blauner.
Long before Peter W. May became Chairman of the Boards of Trustees, his family had a life-changing experience at The Mount Sinai Hospital. It was 1970, and Peter and Leni May were at Mount Sinai, where Leni was about to give birth to their second child, Leslie. But the birth was extremely complicated. Mrs. May had Rh negative blood, and her baby had Rh positive blood.
This incompatibility can be life-threatening to the baby as the mother’s Rh antibodies cross into the fetus and begin destroying its red blood cells. Today, the condition can be successfully prevented and treated with medicine during a woman’s pregnancy. But at the time, there was no medication, and the Mount Sinai physicians acted quickly and effectively.
“The doctors performed a cesarean when they saw how threatened the baby was,” Mr. May recently told an interviewer. “My daughter was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai and had her blood exchanged four times as a premature baby. Essentially, the doctors there saved her life.”
In a recent interview, Mrs. May recalled her daughter’s difficult birth. “We were lucky she lived. And because of that we had a very sweet spot for Mount Sinai.”
Today, Leslie May Blauner and her husband, Andrew Blauner, are themselves parents of three children who were born at Mount Sinai. Leslie’s brother, Jon May, and his wife, Juliana May, have two children of their own. Both couples served as Benefit Chairs of the 2019 Mount Sinai Crystal Party.
For more than 20 years, Mrs. Blauner has been affiliated with Mount Sinai in various full-time and volunteer capacities, including working with pregnant and parenting teens, and children with cancer and gastrointestinal disease. She is currently a member of The Mount Sinai Auxiliary Board, which complements the Health System’s clinical activities with social and educational services.
Growing up, Mrs. Blauner said, her parents were role models in their philanthropic work, whether it was fundraising for their children’s school or their synagogue. “My father’s whole mentality is about philanthropy and giving back, and taking care of everybody around him—his family members, his friends—if they need it. I would describe my father as the best person I know,” she said in a recent interview.
Leni May has said of her husband, whom she began dating at 15: “He’s a great father, a great husband, a good son. He’s blessed. I have a nickname for him, Perfect Peter. He just takes things as they come along, and that’s been the same way in business and the same way at Mount Sinai.”
She said turning around Mount Sinai “has been his most overwhelming job, in a good way. He loved it. He loves a challenge.”
Mr. May has said, “Our institution today really makes a difference in the health care it provides to people around the world. When I step back and think about it, it’s probably the single most important thing I’ve done in my life other than building my family. I’ve been very successful in my business career, but I think the impact that we’ve had at Mount Sinai and the value of what we do in terms of contributing to the improvement of health has been incredibly rewarding.”
According to Jon May, “We have always felt that Mount Sinai has the best doctors and the best care. Mount Sinai has played such an important role in the lives of three generations of our family.”
Mrs. Blauner recalled a family story from several years ago that illustrated the pride Mr. May derived from his work at Mount Sinai. When she was in labor at The Mount Sinai Hospital with her third child, she had invited her parents into the delivery room. As they were waiting for her labor to progress, Mr. May took his wife on a little tour of a newly constructed wing of the hospital and was happy to point out how great the new space was. “He was showing my mother how beautiful this was and that was—and finally she said, ‘Our daughter’s in labor. We have to get back to the room!’”