Montefiore Opens New Children's Hospital By JORDAN MOSS
Four-year-old Glamaris Echevarria, who has asthma, may be too little to
have much of a conversation with a reporter, but the little
Next door, 9-year-old Awa Dibba was not as happy because she was in bed with pneumonia, but her father, Sulayman Dibba, said he was pleased with the individualized attention his daughter was getting. Everything at the Children's Hospital was designed with kids in mind, from the low hallway railings to the colorful blinds that depict the Bronx landscape going back hundreds of years. Planners of the 106-bed Children's Hospital wanted to create an environment that inspires kids to dream and imagine, and they came up with the Carl Sagan Discovery Program, a vast web of displays, exhibits, sculptures, murals, maps, and hands-on learning tools that are visible almost everywhere in the $120 million facility. In the lobby, Foucault's Pendulum, made of glass and bronze, swings from the main lobby down to the lower lobby, and shows that the earth rotates on its own axis. The Ecosphere, also in the lobby, is a self-contained biosystem with a variety of animal and plant life. "You never need to add food, water, or air," explains a brochure for families about the Discovery Program. "It is a closed environment." The hospital serves as the hub of Montefiore's Child Health System, a
network "The Children's Hospital at Montefiore will provide all of the children in our community with the most advanced health care on the planet," said Irwin Redlener, MD, president of the Children's Hospital. Spencer Foreman, MD, president of Montefiore Medical Center, said that in addition to serving more than 400,000 children of the Bronx and the surrounding region, the Children's Hospital would be "the clinical and academic hub of a comprehensive regional system providing the most sophisticated pediatric health care available." Ed. note: The Norwood News is published by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for- profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center.
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The Children's Hospital at
Montefiore, thought to be the most advanced medical facility for kids in
the world, opened its doors in Norwood last week. And patients and parents
are already giving it rave reviews.
girl's
disposition spoke for itself. One moment she was kneeling on her bed
coloring, the next she was skipping around her very own hospital room. She
even looked happy when a nurse came by to listen to her breathing.
Glamaris' mother, Zaray Echevarria, who lives near Yankee Stadium, is
happy too, with the accommodations at the new hospital. There is a shower
and a fridge in Glamaris' room, and there is a couch that pulls out into a
full bed, so that she or her husband can stay over night with Glamaris.
Next door, Anthony Kelly, another asthmatic, played with a computer
keyboard that controls what appears on the flat-screen TV above his bed.
Anthony, 9, has a wide choice of video, interactive learning games, and
instructional videos on health care - perfect for showing a family the
proper way to use an inhaler for instance. If he has to leave the room for
a test or any other reason, he can push pause on his keyboard, and return
to the video at the point he left off. "He doesn't want to go home," said
Anthony's mother, Mildred Betance.
