Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Patient Stories
“Doing Phenomenally Well”
Kaitlyn Crutchlow and dad Ross visit Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD.
After birth, Kaitlyn Crutchlow seemed headed down the same high-risk road as her two brothers, who counted 30 allergies between them. At 4 weeks, she already had body-wide eczema and tested positive for milk and egg allergies. And blood and skin tests at the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai also showed a negative reaction to peanut, which prompted her physician, Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Allergy and Immunology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, to start the infant at 6 months on a slurry of peanut butter and hot water through an eye dropper. “The idea of giving a potentially highly allergic food to an infant unable to verbalize was kind of nerve-racking,” admits Kaitlyn’s mother, Jenny Crutchlow.
Now, at 16 months of age, Kaitlyn is “doing phenomenally well,” reports her mom. A small rash around her mouth and some hives on the torso caused concern initially, but they disappeared after a month and now she consumes peanut-containing foods every day without any reaction. And that has given Ms. Crutchlow the luxury to think about a world free of the constant threat of allergic reactions. “Imagine your child being able to go to birthday parties without worrying about her having a piece of cake,” she says, “or eating at a restaurant without fear that anaphylaxis—a potentially fatal reaction to allergy—is around the corner.”
“Hopeful and Relieved”
Chia Kuo with son Ander
“I think many parents of kids with allergies have this level of guilt that they could have done something differently,” says Chia Kuo, whose 4-year-old twin daughters have food allergies, one of whom has a severe allergy to peanut. So, when her son, Ander, was born, Ms. Kuo was determined to give him an advantage her daughters did not have. She brought him to the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute for testing at 4 months and, soon after, under physician supervision, began introducing him to peanut-containing food as part of a risk-reduction regimen.
Mount Sinai’s Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn has treated Ander’s older sisters for nearly five years. Dr. Nowak-Wegrzyn started Ander on small doses of diluted peanut butter even though his allergies were considered mild. After passing this initial “food challenge” at the Jaffe Institute, Ander was cleared for increasing amounts of the mixture at home, three to four times a week.
The prognosis for Ander at 10 months is encouraging. The eczema he has had since birth has remained stable, and Ms. Kuo has been advised her son’s chances of developing a peanut allergy are slim. “I’m hopeful and relieved,” she says. “If not for the treatment, there’s a good chance Ander may have wound up with severe allergies, just as one of my daughters did.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Patient Stories
Anna Balint and Mark S. Courey, MD, after her successful surgery
In August 2015, Anna Balint fell in her New Jersey home and sustained a neck fracture. Then, during reparative surgery at a local hospital, the anesthesiologist damaged Mrs. Balint’s voice box, which left her near death.
“I turned blue from lack of oxygen,” she says, reflecting on her ordeal. Fortunately, another physician in the room was able to perform an emergency tracheostomy and saved her life. In rescuing Mrs. Balint, however, the physician damaged her larynx and left her unable to speak.
An ear, nose and throat specialist, whom she later consulted in New Jersey, told Mrs. Balint that he would not be able to restore her voice—confirming her worst fears. But he did provide a silver lining: he recommended that she see Mark S. Courey, MD, Division Chief of Laryngology and Director of the Grabscheid Voice and Swallowing Center of Mount Sinai. That set her on the path to healing.
Dr. Courey scoped Mrs. Balint’s throat and found complicated damage to the airway. He said he could bring her voice back with additional surgery to her larynx and trachea, although he could not guarantee that she would regain her pre-injury tone. To Mrs. Balint, who had once prided herself on having a lovely singing voice and enjoyed singing in church, that was a small price to pay, because at this point, the only way she could communicate was by writing her thoughts down on paper.
A six-hour operation to repair her voice box soon followed. During the surgery, Dr. Courey fixed a complex airway narrowing, performed a resection of Mrs. Balint’s trachea, and created a new tracheotomy. Although she remained in the hospital for five days following the surgery and was connected to a ventilator, Mrs. Balint noticed immediate results.
“As soon as I was out of surgery, I started to speak,” she says. “I did not have to write down everything. I was so happy! Can you imagine how many months I had to go through writing everything down before my operation with Dr. Courey?”
At first, Mrs. Balint saw Dr. Courey every two to three weeks so he could check on the progression of her healing. The ventilator made sleeping at night particularly uncomfortable. But, approximately one year after her ordeal began, Dr. Courey removed her from the machine and Mrs. Balint says she finally felt “free. Dr. Courey held my hand and said, ‘Everything is going to be all right.’ ”
Mrs. Balint says, “I still have a small hole in my neck. If I talk too much I have to assist my voice with my stomach, but I have no machine. Every day I think about Dr. Courey. Nobody else knew how to correct my voice, only he did. I would recommend him to everybody. In fact, I have already recommended two friends to see him. I am alive and can speak to my husband and grandchildren, I am very happy.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured, Patient Stories
After treatment for ovarian cancer, Valerie Goldfein created Woman to Woman, a program at The Mount Sinai Hospital to support other gynecologic cancer patients that has expanded nationwide.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Patient Stories, Research
Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD, Professor of Dermatology and Vice Chair of the Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is involved in a clinical trial for a potential new treatment for atopic dermatitis.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Inside, Patient Stories
Tomer Avraham, MD, with Cherie Marcus
It was Tuesday evening, May 17, 2016, and Cherie Marcus, 62, had stopped at a corner on Central Park West, waiting to cross the street. Suddenly, a runaway car struck a taxi, which then rammed into Ms. Marcus, crushing her legs. When she was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, orthopaedic surgeon David A. Forsh, MD, thought she had a 50-50 chance of losing one or both legs. Today, after nine surgeries and several months of physical and occupational therapy, Ms. Marcus—with her legs preserved—is walking almost normally.
Dr. Forsh, Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma, Mount Sinai Health System, and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, performed surgery to control the bleeding, irrigate her wounds, and place external hardware to stabilize the tibia and fibula in both legs. A week later, when the soft tissue began to heal and some of the muscle swelling had subsided, he operated to insert rods and plates in both legs.
After assessing the extensive bone loss and muscle and soft tissue damage, he called on Tomer Avraham, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery). Dr. Avraham would begin a series of seven tissue transfer surgeries on Memorial Day weekend.
“We had to take skin and fat from her thigh, transfer it with its blood supply, connect the small blood vessels under the microscope, and do repeated rounds of skin grafting,” Dr. Avraham says. Throughout the process, doctors warned Ms. Marcus that infection might set in and
complications might still necessitate amputations. “I’ve seen worse injuries, but not on anybody who ended up keeping their legs,” Dr. Avraham recalls.
During the long process, patient and physician bonded, Ms. Marcus remembers. “I had complete faith in Dr. Avraham,” she says. “He was very approachable and easy to communicate with. He answered all our questions and he was always in touch with my husband.” She also recalls, “I’ll never forget the day when, after weeks of emphasizing that amputation could not be ruled out, Dr. Avraham walked into my hospital room, smiled, and said, ‘I think we have a win.’”
Throughout the process, Ms. Marcus remained optimistic, which her doctors believe played a role in her recovery. Also key to her recovery was the diligence with which she pursued physical and occupational therapy at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s to help her relearn to walk. “They were all so helpful,” she recalls of the staff. “Everyone was so positive, the nurses’ aides, the people who took my food order, even the maintenance people. And, I can’t say enough nice things about the nurses.”
On the mend in July, Ms. Marcus was transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility, where she spent six weeks, followed by physical therapy at home for a month. She recently completed two months of outpatient physical therapy and plans to continue strengthening and conditioning at a local gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she lives. In addition to her doctors, she is grateful to her supportive network of family, friends, and colleagues from the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Public Theater, where she worked prior to her accident. “It’s an astounding recovery,” says Dr. Avraham. “She’s an amazing lady.”
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Inside, Patient Stories
Three “generations” of mentors for Woman to Woman, a group that supports women with gynecologic cancer: from left, Robin Findling, Myrtice Wooten, and Tricia Clarke.
It was something of a family reunion when cancer survivors met on a recent Saturday at the 92nd Street Y—if a family can consist of 100 women from just about every generation and culture. What they had in common was Woman to Woman, a peer-to-peer program founded at Mount Sinai by Valerie Goldfein, an ovarian cancer survivor, that provides emotional support, mentoring, and financial aid to women in treatment for gynecologic cancer. (more…)
