Saturday, September 12, 2009

Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital

When she is crowned a titleholder in the Miss America Organization, it is that young lady's responsibility to promote important values like community service and empowerment. Each titleholder is required to not only have a personal platform, but also to promote the national platform of MAO, which is the Children's Miracle Network, whenever possible. Yesterday, I had the honor to tour the brand new Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital, which is the official CMN hospital of Syracuse and 17 surrounding counties.

I was awe-struck during my tour of this breathtaking facility. There are 71 private patient rooms, each equipped with HDTV's, PlayStations, private bathrooms with showers and pull-out beds for family members. There are 15 pediatric intensive care rooms, with a window in the wall so that a nurse may sit at the window outside the room, continue her work on a computer, and have constant eye contact with the patient. There are 12 rooms customized for patients with cancer and blood disorders. There are six rooms customized for epilepsy patients. The physical therapy rooms are equipped with ceiling tracks to better assist children who suffer from obesity. There is the multi-sensory room, which provides children a soothing and attention-engaging environment to ease their anxieties, as well as to help children with autism. There are classrooms equipped with books and computers, to allow for video and audio conferencing between the child and their school so they can keep up with their studies. There treatment rooms where particularly painful or uncomfortable procedures (shots, anyone? Ick!) are done, so that the children do not associate discomfort with their living space. Of course, there are six playrooms so that the childhoods of the patients are not stopped short by illness. There is the interfaith chapel, which provides a calm, intimate space for children and families to gather their thoughts and get some peace of mind. Rev. Louise has asked me to come back and appear for her half-hour children's group :) There is a performance space, for the children to watch various shows, movies, and musical groups. There are large family areas, with chairs, phones, showers, a microwave and fridge, as well as apartment rooms with double beds and laundry facilities for families who travel from afar and refuse to leave their loved one.There is a special TreeHouse elevator, which allows incoming patients to arrive right at their special part of the hospital without having to travel through the intimidating, scary regular ER. There is the TreeHouse Cafe which is home to Tim Horton's and Coldstone Creamery. The manager is planning on having Miss Finger Lakes come back and scoop ice cream for an ice cream social :)

I know that I have missed an awful lot of what I saw, but I didn't happen to take too many pictures. No amount of blogging, though, can do any justice; this facility is outstanding, a state-of-the-art care center for the children who will inevitably need it. What I most liked about this hospital is its level of attention paid to not only the future patients but also to the most important people in patients' lives. A hospital with apartments? This place is nicer than most hotels I've been in. I know from experience what it is like to sit in a hospital waiting area while someone you love is suffering just down the hall, and often times, you never know if your whole life is going to change in a matter of minutes.... it's incredibly scary, and having been in that position countless times over the past 12 years, I can say that this hospital is doing a wonderful job at foreseeing those difficult circumstances and preparing for them with facilities that are as comfortable as possible.

Imagine: A family has their child rushed via ambulence to the hospital. The patient is brought in through the TreeHouse entrance, straight up to warmly-decorated Children's Hospital to be examined, while the family waits in the family area, able to watch TV or surf the web to occupy their minds while they wait for the doctor. Say the doctor has some particularly bad news; the family is ushered into a private discussion room, so that the details can be discussed in an intimate setting. If the family does not really understand what this diagnosis means for them and their child, they may go to the education center, staffed with professional librarians and stocked with literature on a number of different conditions and diseases, so that they may gain some insight into what exactly their child is suffering from. The interfaith chapel will provide a space for them to gather their thoughts quietly, and maybe send a little prayer asking for guidance during this time. If the family has to stay with their child, there are pull-out beds in every room, and the hospital is more than happy to supply pillows and blankets. There are private shower facilities for the family in every room.

I can go on and on with this scenario, but I think you get the idea. This place is incredible, exactly what Syracuse and the 17 surrounding counties needs to ensure the safety and well-being of our children. No child is ever turned away, regardless of economic status. This is something that parents need to be aware of, because in these tough economic times, they need to know that their children need not suffer just because of lack of health insurance or finances.

As I was leaving, I was given a baby pine tree as a parting gift. I want to plant my pine tree in memory of Erin Maxwell at Emerson J. Dillon Middle School, the school that she was attending when she died a year ago. Who is Erin Maxwell, you ask? She was an 11 year old girl who lived in deplorable conditions about 30 minutes north of Syracuse University; Social Services had been to her home over 50 times, the school nurse gave her clean clothes everyday to wear instead of the cat urine-soaked clothes she came to school in (which will happen when you have over 70 cats in your home, overflowing with dead kittens in the freeze), and the school principal paid out of pocket everyday for her to eat lunch because her family refused to give her lunch money or accept the school's application for free lunch. She was found by her stepbrother, a grown man named Alan Jones, strangled by a rope in her room (which was locked on the outside and had chicken wire on the inside of the door). The autopsy showed asphyxiation as the leading cause of death, with sexual trauma as a contributing factor. As a human being, this type of situation is what disgusts me about the system currently in place. Because her parents were "exceeding minimum standards for care," she was not removed from the home. As a social work major, this is exactly the type of child, the life, that I want to save, and as Miss Finger Lakes, I would want her to be able to look at me and say "I want to be just like her." But that can never happen now, and we cannot as a society be ignorant to situations like this. Her parents were found guilty of all counts of neglect and face up to two years in jail (such justice, eh?) and her stepbrother is currently on trial for her murder. Hopefully, some justice will be brought so this little angel may rest in peace.

My experience at the Golisano Children's Hospital was amazing, and I encourage everyone to take a tour of the facility before it opens for business. This is a wonderful opportunity for the Syracuse community to ensure the healthfulness of the children in the area and surrounding areas. So go, grab an ice cream cone and a coffee, and see what this amazing facility has to offer. While you're at it silently thank Tom Golisano, the Children's Miracle Network, Upstate Medical University, and all others involved in making this a dream come true for the children of Syracuse.