Anne Coneys had a dear friend who had ovarian cancer and shared her experiences to educate others. So Anne was familiar with the symptoms when they came on suddenly.

One day she woke up with a bloated stomach. During breakfast, she felt very full after just a few bites and knew something was wrong. She dropped everything she had planned for the day and made an appointment to see her physician.

Within hours of testing, Anne, 59, was diagnosed with stage IIIC ovarian cancer. Within two days, she met with Nimesh Nagarsheth, MD, an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Within a week, she had surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Anne then went for chemotherapy at the Women’s Cancer Program at Mount Sinai Chelsea under the guidance of Stephanie Blank, MD, Director of the Women’s Cancer Program and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine.

Anne decided to receive her treatments at Mount Sinai Chelsea because she wanted a smaller place that offered a more personal experience. Her feeling was confirmed from the moment she met Dr. Blank. “Dr. Blank provided options based on the latest research and on my personal situation. She explained  what she felt was the best plan for me, and it allowed me to be part of the process. It’s very important to take an active role in your own treatment.”

Anne says she is very happy she chose Mount Sinai Chelsea. “It’s a calmer, quieter environment. I received excellent personal attention. I felt important,” she says. “The staff became like family to me, and seeing the familiar faces each time I went for treatment gave me great comfort.”

Anne had no early warning signs of the disease, nor did she have a family history of ovarian cancer. But after her diagnosis, she did receive genetic testing and tested positive for Lynch syndrome, which makes her susceptible to ovarian and gastrointestinal cancers. As a result, her family also is undergoing genetic testing. One family member has already tested positive, allowing her to take steps to prevent future illness.

“It’s so important to stay informed and be proactive,” she says. “Mount Sinai gives the patient access to excellent medical care and information throughout treatment.”

Anne completed one course of chemotherapy treatment at Mount Sinai Chelsea and retains her positive outlook.

“Believing you’re going to get better is a major part of the process,” she says. “Stay positive and surround yourself with positive people.”

To her, the motto at the Women’s Cancer Program, ‘Life, with cancer on the side,’ says it all. “At Mount Sinai Chelsea, I was encouraged to enjoy life, not just stress about my cancer.”

Carl Luss, a heart patient at Mount Sinai Union Square, got a second chance at life after suffering cardiac arrest.

“My care was complicated, and I needed to see many people,” he says. “The doctors and nursing staff at Mount Sinai were terrific, and I ended up having heart surgery that saved my life.”

When he retired, Carl decided to see a cardiologist because his family had a history of heart disease. He got a recommendation from his Mount Sinai family physician, Joshua Issack, MD. So he made an appointment with Dennis Finkielstein, MD, a cardiologist and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the Icahn School of Medicine. He called to come in a few weeks earlier because he had an extremely busy schedule in the months ahead, including doing work on his summer house on Fire Island. He feels extremely lucky the office could see him. He ended up going into cardiac arrest there in the office and was resuscitated by Dr. Finkielstein.

He would later receive two stents and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), and was diagnosed with a sclerotic aortic valve. Normally, patients are advised to wait six months before having another heart procedure. But soon afterwards, he developed shortness of breath and angina, so once again, he called Dr. Finkielstein. Dr. Finkielstein saw him immediately.

“I wanted to wait because I had things to do at my summer house, but Dr. Finkielstein insisted that I come in right away,” he says. He ended up having quadruple bypass and aortic valve replacement at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, done by John Puskas, MD, who is Director of Surgical Coronary Revascularization for the Mount Sinai Health System.

“I live in the East Village, so Mount Sinai Union Square is less than a mile away,” he says. “It’s a convenient and wonderful building where I experienced one-stop shopping for all of my medical and health care procedures, from getting blood drawn to seeing the vascular surgeon who treated my leg post op. Best of all, you can go in and set up all of your appointments for one day.”

Barbara Warnock-Morgan saw a number of different breast cancer specialists at Mount Sinai. She was happy with the way they cared for her—and with the way they worked with each other.

“Mount Sinai was there for me when I needed it,” she says. “I chose to do my chemotherapy and radiation at Mount Sinai Chelsea because of proximity—the location is close to my work.  Everyone there made me feel comfortable and cared for.”

At the Women’s Cancer Program at Mount Sinai Chelsea, one of the first things she asked her doctor, Paula Klein, MD, was if she would lose her hair. “I was offered the option of scalp cooling, which helped me to keep my hair and my sense of my identity. So even when I felt sick, I didn’t look sick, and that was important to me,” she says.

At Mount Sinai Chelsea, she saw Dr. Klein, an Associate Professor of Oncology and Hematology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, for chemotherapy.

She also saw Elisa Port, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, for breast surgery at the Dubin Breast Center;  Alice Yao, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, for breast reconstruction at The Mount Sinai Hospital; and Manjeet Chadha, MD, a Professor of Radiation Oncology, for radiation treatment at Mount Sinai Chelsea.

She found Mount Sinai Chelsea—a newly expanded and renovated office close to the Chelsea Market, the High Line and other neighborhood landmarks—extremely convenient and easy to reach by public transportation. “The facility is modern and comfortable, and the level of care I received was excellent,” she says. “Getting appointments was also pretty easy.  The atmosphere is very pleasant, and the staff is fantastic.”

Along the way, she appreciated the coordination of care and the special patient services. “Mount Sinai made it easy. I would recommend others take advantage of the comprehensive services offered at Mount Sinai Chelsea. Seeing a psychiatrist helps you feel more normal.  Guided meditation during chemotherapy helped me relax a lot.”

At times, Barbara actually looked forward to leaving her office for the relative calm of Mount Sinai Chelsea. She liked meeting and talking with other patients who were facing some of the same issues.

“From my first visit to my last, Mount Sinai was able to provide coordinated services for my entire treatment plan. All my doctors have access to my records in a centralized system,” she says. “I never had to leave the system, and that relieved a lot of the anxiety and stress that patients in my situation feel. Having breast cancer is scary—Mount Sinai was able to take care of the details and make it less scary.”

When a regular mammogram showed early stage breast cancer, Donna Tookes had some important decisions to make. Choosing the Women’s Cancer Program at Mount Sinai Chelsea turned out to be one of the best of them.

Donna’s husband, Darryl, had read about a clinical trial that was being led by Paula Klein, MD, a medical oncologist at Mount Sinai Chelsea who focuses on care for breast cancer patients in the tristate area. It would end up saving the day for Donna.

The clinical trial studied the effectiveness of the DigniCap® scalp cooling system to reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer. Donna and Darryl were so impressed that they decided to commute from Stamford, Connecticut, to enroll and participate.

“Cancer didn’t care if I lost my hair. Mount Sinai did,” she says. While participating in the DigniCap trial, she also received her chemotherapy treatment at Mount Sinai Chelsea.

“I want others to know about the life-saving and life-changing work that is being done there,” Donna says.  “At a very scary time in my life, Mount Sinai gave me hope.” Four years after treatment, she had no signs of cancer.

As a result of the research by Dr. Klein, an Associate Professor of Oncology and Hematology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the DigniCap system was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 to reduce the likelihood of chemotherapy-induced hair loss in women with breast cancer.

Mount Sinai was the first health system in New York to offer breast cancer patients the DigniCap, which is now available at the Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai Chelsea, and Mount Sinai West. In the FDA clinical trials completed in the United States, 7 out of 10 patients with early-stage breast cancer kept at least 50 percent of their hair.

It might not seem like much. But keeping her hair made a world of difference. “Having access to the technology at Mount Sinai allowed me to keep my hair, which helped me feel more like myself during months of challenging treatment,” Donna says.