Sofiia Baturina and her doctor, Barry Love, MD

When Russian forces invaded her hometown in Ukraine, 16-year-old Sofiia Baturina had never heard of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital thousands of miles away.

The young girl, born with a rare heart condition that required life-long care, knew that she had a long, perilous journey ahead. She was often frightened, and winded because of her heart condition. But further care would have to wait until she reached safety with her mom and dad.

After a harrowing journey out of Ukraine, they arrived in Germany. At this point, Sofiia’s older sister, Anna, who lived in New York, made contact with the Staten Island-based Global Medical Relief Fund seeking help. The nonprofit foundation arranged for flights out of Germany, and with one email quickly connected the family to doctors at Mount Sinai, who immediately offered to help.

When Sofiia arrived in New York City with her parents on June 27, she was exhausted. Her hometown of Severodonetsk, a city of about 100,000 residents in northeast Ukraine, was still on her mind. Located about 90 miles from the Russian border, it had been a focal point of the war and the scene of fierce fighting. The city was now in ruins, and she could only guess whether she would ever return.

“My city remains intact only in my memory’s most distant, secluded corners, where it is still young, beautiful, clean, and tidy,” she says.  The loss of her home, her hometown, and her homeland, she says, represents “the greatest loss of my life.”

But it was not her first test.

Sofiia Baturina wearing a traditional Ukrainian wreath.

When the war with Russia broke out, she had already endured a lifetime of surgeries to fix her heart. Born with the heart condition tetralogy of Fallot,  she had three prior heart operations performed in Kyiv—the first when she was 10 months old. While in the hospital preparing for a fourth surgery, she was informed that the operation would be postponed because she had COVID-19. After she recovered, with the war underway, there was no chance of finding a surgeon in Ukraine.

Once at Mount Sinai, Sofiia and her family  finally received some good news: After reviewing the records the family brought and performing additional testing, the team at Mount Sinai felt that Sofiia could be treated with a minimally invasive catheterization procedure rather than surgery. Her doctors in Ukraine had recommended open-heart surgery, which comes with a much longer and harder recovery.

On August 2, Barry Love, MD, Director of the Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Program at the performed a two-hour procedure from a small incision in the groin.

Instead of replacing an old conduit, the narrowed tube between the right heart and the lungs, which had been implanted during a previous surgery, Dr. Love enlarged this critical tube with a series of balloons, and then he placed a metal cage, called a stent, to hold it open. Finally, he telescoped a new valve within the stent and expanded in-place to complete the procedure and allow the blood to again flow freely to the lungs and not leak back to the heart.

“Before we intervened, Sofiia’s right heart pressure was dangerously high,” Dr. Love says.  “After the stent and valve, her right heart pressure is nearly normal. This is an incredibly satisfying result.”

Sofiia was discharged from the hospital the next day. A week later, she was walking without symptoms.  She was excited to tell Dr. Love, “I walked 19,000 steps yesterday and didn’t get tired or have to stop.”

Sofiia and her family are grateful for the warm welcome and expert care they received at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital.

“I’m feeling great!” she says. “My life became more accessible and comfortable after the surgery. I do my best to walk more when I have free time from school. I especially enjoy walking in Central Park.”

Looking back on the toll of the war and the pandemic, she says, “I don’t know how I managed to stay strong. That was my only choice. Letting the fear swallow and paralyze you is the worst thing you can do.”

Sofiia and her father, Andril, hiding out in a basement during their long and arduous escape from Ukraine.

Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, at podium, with panelist (left to right), David Anderson, MD, FACs, Anna Barbieri, MD, Jeffery Meckanick, MD, Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD, and Joseph Sparano , MD, FACP.

The annual Dubin Breast Center Fact vs. Fiction Luncheon and Symposium is a unique event that provides a forum for Mount Sinai leaders to share key insights about all aspects of breast cancer and healthy living, and to answer questions about emerging trends and the future of women’s health.

More than 130 people attended the event, which was held Wednesday, June 1 at The Harmonie Club in New York City.

The panel discussion was moderated by Elisa Port, MD, FACS, and featured a panel of experts, including David Anderson, MD, FACS; Anna Barbieri, MD; Jeffrey Mechanick, MD; Cardinale Smith, MD, PhD; and Joseph Sparano, MD, FACP. Watch the video here.

In opening remarks, Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, Trustee of the Mount Sinai Health System and Founder of the Dubin Breast Center, noted how the Center continues to grow.

“Today we see an average of 180 to 200 patients a day, and since the day we opened we have seen 380,000 patients,” she said. “I am so thankful to everyone who works at the Center.”

One patient, Julie McAllister, shared her inspiring story. She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer six years ago when she was 36 years old.

Julie McAllister tells her story of how the Dubin Breast Center helped her overcome triple negative breast cancer.

“I was in complete shock. I was young, very healthy, active a mother of two children–my youngest was just six months at the time,” she said. “There wasn’t any history of breast cancer in my family. Breast cancer wasn’t even a remote part of my reality. I truly didn’t know if and how I was going to survive. I kept thinking about my kids and how much of their life I was going to be around for, not to mention my husband and I wanted more children.“

Immediately after her initial diagnosis, Shari Brasner, MD, her OBGYN doctor, arranged for additional care. Eventually Ms. McAllister chose Mount Sinai for her treatment and surgery, and she was introduced to Hanna Irie, MD, PhD, who would become her oncologist.

“Dr. Irie was the best and felt like my lifeline during my treatment,” she said. “She was straightforward, incredibly smart, kind, and never made me feel like any of my questions and or fears were silly or unwarranted.” The doctor also helped her find a clinical trial to participate in once she completed her standard treatment.

Ms. McAllister would undergo a number of surgeries, five months of chemotherapy, six weeks of radiation, and then years of ongoing surveillance.

“Throughout all that time, I always felt like I was in the best hands and had the best doctors and nurses looking after me and never felt like a generic cancer patient or a statistic,” she said. “The nurses and staff were extremely warm and knowledgeable. The treatment rooms were comfortable, and I never felt alone.”

She added, “Cancer crushes you physically and mentally. It changes you, puts a fear in you that you never knew existed, and alters the way you think and worry for the rest of your life. But knowing that there are places like the Dubin Breast Center, that there are doctors like the ones I was fortunate enough to call mine, who can and will help treat and cure your cancer, is incredible. I am forever grateful for the treatment and care that I received.”

As a result, she was able to have another child, who was born just four months before the event at The Mount Sinai Hospital, two floors above the Dubin Breast Center.

The Dubin Breast Center at The Tisch Cancer Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was created in 2011 to provide integrated care and services for every phase of breast health and care, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Clinicians and staff treat each person individually and holistically, with the goal of alleviating anxiety, enriching lives, and supporting emotional and physical well-being. The team works to advance the standard of care with innovative and emerging treatment, while researching life-saving options for the future.

“Ten years ago I thought my life was over. I did not think I could find the right partner or even have children. Being a part of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai has helped me and my family so much.” — Jessica March

In 2009, when Jessica March was 29 years old, she began experiencing tingling in her toes and blurry vision.  She was an athlete, and thought she was training too much for a 100-mile bike ride.

“You find all these excuses,” she said. “I remember waking up one morning, I opened my eyes, and I was completely paralyzed.”  Mrs. March was terrified.  “I felt like my body was in a straitjacket,” she said.  She panicked and was screaming while pulling herself along the ground.  “I didn’t know what was wrong with me, I was crying for days,” she said.

The first doctor she saw was a general neurologist who told her she had fibromyalgia.  However, when she got her test results from the hospital, she started doing her own research and suspected multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition she had never heard of prior.

Jessica found a specialist for multiple sclerosis who started treating her for MS. This specialist referred her to Stephen Krieger, MD, Professor of Neurology, at the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai.  “It’s been over 10 years, and I have never looked back,” she said.

Her diagnosis and treatment started with an MRI and medications.  But with Dr. Krieger and the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center, her treatment also emphasized the overall wellness of her life and how to thrive while living with this condition.

“He introduced me to the MS support group, and I was exposed to studies and data showing that people with MS can thrive,” Mrs. March said.  In addition to her medications, her treatment includes nutrition, exercise, stress management, and mental health.

“Working with this team, I feel more confident talking to others and helping them,” she said. “I started in this dark place. Ten years ago I thought my life was over.  I did not think I could find the right partner or even have children.  Being a part of the MS Center has helped me and my family so much.” She is married and has two children.

Why should patients with multiple sclerosis choose Mount Sinai?  “This faculty is the best in the world for researching and treating MS,” said Mrs. March, who credits Dr. Krieger, clinical neuropsychologist James Sumowski, PhD, and Ilana Katz-Sand, MD, along with the nurses and fellows, and the entire office staff at the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai.

“Their life mission is to support patients and caregivers,” she says. “It’s not just about a prescription on a prescription pad, it’s about your whole life. This group really cares.”

When Paul Levine, 86, began feeling sick, with chills, fever, and weakness, he feared his cancer might have returned, so he called his oncologist. After learning Mr. Levine had lost his sense of smell, a symptom of COVID-19, the doctor immediately sent him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with the disease.

In the hospital, Mr. Levine felt miserable. He was put on oxygen and given infusions of fluids. He had trouble sleeping and didn’t feel like eating. He missed his wife, Sondra, who called several times a day, and he missed her cooking.

After about a week at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, he was able to return home to his East Village apartment to continue his recovery, thanks to a unique Mount Sinai program that offers hospital care in home settings.

Since 2014, Mount Sinai has offered some patients arriving at the hospital the option of getting the care they need at home under its Hospitalization at Home program. The program provides twice daily visits from nurses, a special digital tablet to communicate with the hospital, and the ability to receive all needed tests and exams, including IV infusions, ultrasounds, and supplemental oxygen.

Shortly after patients with COVID-19 began arriving at hospitals, Mount Sinai developed a new program, called Completing Hospitalization at Home, that allowed appropriate COVID-19 patients like Mr. Levine to be discharged to home to complete their recovery, while receiving all of the care they would normally receive in the hospital.

“I believe that the hospital at home program gave me the best of both worlds. I had hospital care with the home cooking that was most important in recovering the weight I had lost, along with my wife’s care and company,” says Mr. Levine, who lost about 18 pounds.

Almost three months after his initial diagnosis, Mr. Levine, a diabetic who recovered from treatment for a blood disorder called chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) more than a decade ago, was doing much better. He still felt some shortness of breath, even with minimal exertion. But he’s thankful to be at home and to finally get his appetite back, especially for his wife’s homemade mushroom and barley soup.

Linda V. DeCherrie, MD, the program’s clinical director and a Professor in the Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said the program helps patients recover because they are more comfortable and find it easier to gradually return to normal activities, such as walking around and getting a cup of coffee. Studies show these patients have better outcomes.

“You are in your own bed, eating your own food, and enjoying the company of your loved ones,” said Dr. DeCherrie. “Being at home can help your recovery in many ways.”