Nov 24, 2016 | Inside, Patient Stories
Patient Evan Wood, left, at the New York City Marathon with Keith J. Benkov, MD
Evan Wood, a 22-year-old Mount Sinai patient, won the Foot Locker Five-Borough Challenge at the New York City Marathon, representing Manhattan and Team IBDKids, a cause that is deeply meaningful to him. Mr. Wood, a recent graduate of New York University, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when he was 14, struggling with stomach pain and weighing about 80 pounds. With care from doctors at The Mount Sinai Hospital, including Keith J. Benkov, MD, he began to thrive. And inspired by Dr. Benkov, who has finished 29 New York marathons, he took up running. “He’s modest, and he doesn’t like praise,” Mr. Wood says of Dr. Benkov, “but he’s been a miracle for me; he’s been a lifesaver.” Dr. Benkov started and leads Team IBDKids, which supports The Children’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at Mount Sinai. The team has raised more than $200,000 this year, and $3 million since starting in 2006, Dr. Benkov says. At the marathon on Sunday, November 6, Mr. Wood raised $3,163 while winning the Challenge, a “race-within-a-race” against four other runners, each representing a borough and a charity. They started together, but competition began in earnest at the halfway point, just outside of Queens. “It’s a very good-spirited competition,” says Mr. Wood, whose race time was 3:44:57. “And you get citywide bragging rights.”
Oct 11, 2016 | Inside, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, Patient Stories
The violinist Yuval Waldman with the Mount Sinai St. Luke’s team, from left: Alan S. Multz, MD, Chief Medical Officer; Leonida Lacdao, RN, Nurse Manager; Emad F. Aziz, DO, MB, CHB; and Eyal Herzog, MD, Director, Cardiac Care Unit, and Director, Echocardiography Laboratory.
Yuval Waldman, a renowned violinist and conductor, recently performed an original song to thank the Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Cardiac Care Team that treated him for atrial flutter and artery blockage. He was admitted to the hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit with severe shortness of breath, swollen legs, high blood pressure, and an irregular, fast heart rhythm. Testing revealed that he was in severe heart failure. Emad F. Aziz, DO, MB, CHB, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiologist, Al-Sabah Arrhythmia Institute, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, performed an atrial flutter ablation that repaired an abnormal conduction pathway. When further tests revealed a blockage in the arteries supplying the heart, stents were placed to improve blood flow. Mr. Waldman performed the impromptu song in June, on the day he was released from the hospital. To view the video, please visit: youtube.com/StLukesHospitalNYC.
Oct 11, 2016 | Inside, Patient Stories
Sara Davidoff, RN, left, with patient Joanna Ng, who has routinely worn a cold cap to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy treatments.
Joanna Ng was determined not to lose her hair after she began receiving chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer last spring.
“I cut my hair short a long time ago, and it took so long to grow back I vowed I would never do it again if I could help it. But mostly, I didn’t want my family to see any hair loss,” says Ms. Ng, 27, who works for a global brokerage firm. (more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Inside, Patient Stories, Research
Patient Alexandra Harry, center, with her Mount Sinai clinical team, from left: Shirish S. Huprikar, MD; Susan Lerner, MD; Brandy Haydel, Clinical Research Program Director; and Sander Florman, MD.
The Mount Sinai Hospital recently became the first hospital in New York State and
the second in the nation to perform a kidney transplant from an HIV-positive deceased donor to an HIV-positive recipient, the result of federal legislation that went into effect late last year making such transplants possible.
Led by Sander Florman, MD, Director of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, and the Charles Miller, MD Professor of Surgery, Mount Sinai is one of four medical centers in the country with federal approval to perform liver and kidney transplants under the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act.
“The new law is a win-win for everyone,” says Dr. Florman. “This represents the potentially largest increase to the organ donor pool in many years and could provide more organs for everyone.”
Prior to the HOPE Act, organs from HIV- positive donors were not legally allowed to be procured for transplant into patients with HIV—the only people eligible to receive them—which made organ waiting lists longer for all patients, including those without HIV. The average wait for a kidney from a deceased non-HIV donor is seven years in New York, according to Dr. Florman.
Alexandra Harry, 55, the first Mount Sinai patient to receive a kidney under the new law, called the transplant “a gift that has given me the opportunity for a better quality of life.” Since 2005, she had been on peritoneal dialysis, which had to be performed 10 hours each night. Ms. Harry says she learned about her eligibility to participate in Mount Sinai’s program only two weeks before she actually received
a suitable kidney, so the entire process was very quick.
A few days after her surgery this past spring, Ms. Harry said, “I felt an improvement almost immediately.” Her surgeon was Susan Lerner, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Medical Education at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute. Shirish S. Huprikar, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute, worked closely with the team to evaluate the appropriateness of HIV-positive donors.
According to Ms. Harry’s son, Aaron, 35, the transplant will enable his mother to travel more freely and see her extended family more frequently without the burden of carrying the medical supplies and equipment needed for her dialysis. “With this kidney, I see more
doors opening,” he says.
Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore and Mount Sinai were the first to perform the transplants. Like Ms. Harry, all recipients must agree to participate in clinical research approved by each hospital’s Institutional Review Board under criteria set by the National Institutes of Health. Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center also have permission to perform these transplants.
At Mount Sinai, there are currently about 80 HIV patients waiting for a kidney transplant and 12 waiting for a liver transplant, says Dr. Florman. It has been estimated that this new source of organs could be enough for as many as 2,500 additional deceased donor transplants in the United States each year.
Dr. Florman recently participated in an Organ Summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by the White House. At the summit, senior administration officials and transplant specialists from hospitals, universities, foundations, and patient advocacy organizations created a Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel with the goal of establishing a national clearinghouse of educational resources about transplant and living donation for patients, living donors, and the public.
“The need for organs for transplantation far exceeds the availability, and the waiting lists continue to grow,” says Dr. Florman. “People’s lives depend on these efforts, so we must find ways to increase the donor supply and also encourage living donation.”
Updated on Mar 31, 2023 | Inside, Patient Stories, Your Health
From left: Barbara E. Warren, PsyD; Jess Ting, MD; Matt Baney; David L. Reich, MD; Pamela Abner, MPA; and Zil Garner Goldstein, FNP
The Mount Sinai Health System recently opened the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, one of the first centers of its kind in the United States to provide the transgender community with comprehensive primary, specialty, surgical, and behavioral health care services.
The Center serves a growing need to support patients in New York City through each stage of their journeys, from initial assessment and screening to hormonal therapy, surgery, and post-transition care, providing seamless access to affordable care. Gynecology, urology, endocrinology, social work, and nursing are among the specialties available at one location. (more…)
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Inside, Patient Stories
Catherine Roosevelt at the recent Fourteenth Annual Gala of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis.
Catherine Roosevelt is a vibrant 30-year-old woman who is dedicated both to her career as the Advancement Director for a nonprofit organization serving girls living in poverty and to her numerous volunteer commitments. In a typical year, she travels an average of one weekend a month for work or volunteer service and spends a month every summer in Lake Placid, New York, co-directing a summer camp. Combined with a busy social life, her days and evenings can be stressful and tiring, but maintaining an active schedule validates a promise she made to herself six years ago, when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS): “I won’t let my disease define me.” (more…)
