Tag Archives: Rush University Medical Center

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A ‘Life-Changing’ Experience After Cancer Diagnosis

By Jeffrey R. Galas 

Last July, an issue with swallowing food caused me to ask why, but I didn’t think twice until it was repeated two more times at three-week intervals. At that time, I moved my annual physical ahead from Oct. 26 to Oct. 6, at which time I insisted to my local doctor of a scope of the area in question. On Oct. 10, it was determined that there was a tumor, and biopsies confirmed a malignant tumor. I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

I immediately went online and looked toward Rush University Medical Center. The specialist in Barrett’s esophagus with minimally invasive surgery was Dr. Gary Chmielewski.

Upon meeting him, I knew he was the surgeon I wanted. He requested two more tests to confirm the diagnosis, after which a port was placed in me. On Oct. 25, I had a consultation with the team of doctors who would be handling my case, including Dr. Chmielewski, a thoracic surgeon; Dr. Sohrab Mobarhan, a gastroenterologist; and Dr. William T. Leslie of hematology/oncology.

Dr. Leslie chose the chemo treatment for my case, and surgery would take place after 12 treatments (depending on results). After eight treatments, the results were impressive, and surgery came sooner then anticipated — on Feb. 27, 2012.

Continue reading →

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From the Archives: Christmas at St. Luke’s, 1946

Members of the St. Luke’s Hospital staff donned costumes to perform “Twas the Night Before Christmas” for other employees in December of 1946. St. Luke’s Hospital was a predecessor of Rush University Medical Center.

You can contact the Archives at rush_archives@rush.edu or at (312) 942-7214.

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Telling the Story: From Air to Zeal

Tony Perry, MD, clinical transformation officer at Rush, during a recent ad shoot for the new hospital.

By Lori Allen

Teamwork at Rush being what it is, there’s no surprise in the numbers of people who helped make last week’s marathon photo shoot a success. Among those we have to thank:

  • Jessica, who walked a good mile for just a few good steps. Selected for her petite size, she paced back and forth next to a tall ladder, which served as the photographer’s perch. For sharing Jessica with us, we thank her manager, the suitably branded Rachel Rush, whose last name is the only one I’ll use today.
  • John, Tony, MaryAlice and Josh -– a highly specialized group of clinicians who together are the cast for a new TV commercial. We were amazed at your ability to talk for more than two hours about air.
  • A band of people from multiple departments who came to our rescue, not long before shoot time, and zealously readied the new hybrid OR for cameras. You could compete against any home makeover crew and win.
  • Eugene, Tiffanie, Eva, Rebecca and Marge, who elegantly illustrated the universal accessibility attribute of the new hospital. We learned a lot from you.

Next we’ll see video from helicopter, shot Oct. 21. Stay tuned.

Related posts:

Lori Allen is assistant vice president, Marketing and Communications, with Rush University Medical Center.

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Haiti Journal: Creating ‘Many Ripples’

By Katie Koren

I am a physical therapist who recently traveled to Haiti with a medical team from Rush University Medical Center. Let me introduce you to several of the Haitians I met:

A 76-year-old woman with cardiac problems and stroke history hobbled for 30 minutes with a stick so she could be seen by our medical team. When she walked, her posture was so kyphotic that her back was almost at a 90-degree angle with her legs. I asked her multiple times during her physical therapy session if she needed a break, and her only answer was no. She desperately wanted to learn to walk again.

Jackie is a 24-year-old interpreter who lost both of his parents in the earthquake and therefore can no longer afford to go to a university. He is saving his money by translating so one day he can go back to school.

Madame La Fleur managed an orphanage that was destroyed after the earthquake. She was relocated to a refugee tent camp with almost 100,000 other people. Her husband took her only biological child and relocated to the United States. She hasn’t heard from him since he fled. She is now living with 30 malnourished children in a refugee tent camp called Jerusalem. Continue reading →

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Haiti Journal: Moved by ‘Graciousness’

The Rush medical team and hosts

Tom Wilson, assistant vice president, Research Affairs, and senior research administrator, chronicled his visit to Haiti with a medical team from Rush University Medical Center.

Day Seven: Today we traveled to a church in Delmas a few miles from our hostel (a trip of a few miles can take 45 minutes to an hour in Port-au-Prince). The medical ministry at this church is an established, well-managed organization headed by Dr. Jeff Bercy. A section church was already divided into five exam rooms, a triage area, waiting room and pharmacy. All patients were triaged prior to our arrival and waiting to be examined by a doctor.

The clinic had a number of volunteers who could supplement our translators and assist in many other ways. There also was a Haitian pediatrician who was very helpful in examining and diagnosing the many pediatric patients.

After we had seen all of the patients in the clinic that day, I distributed soccer balls and basketballs to the volunteers and children. We left the children with treats and we gave a dozen softballs and a basketball to our logistics coordinator that can be given to needy children when he returns home to the Dominican Republic. Continue reading →

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‘Golden Girls’ Give Back to Rush

Rush's Golden Girls (from left) include Rose Marie Monzo, Johanna Bongiorno, Marion Mitchell and Isabel Garcia.

Every Thursday, five retired women give back to Rush University Medical Center, proudly donning their pink volunteer coats and radiant smiles.

Individually they are Rose Marie Monzo, Johanna Bongiorno, Marion Mitchell, Isabel Garcia and Bernice Calvin. Together, they’re known as “the Golden Girls.”

Each of them joined Volunteer Services for a different reason -– one was a patient herself, one wanted to do something useful with her time, and another volunteer’s mother was a patient at Rush for more than three months.

But after volunteering here for a total of 38 years — that’s 7,300 hours — they have come to “truly understand how well the Rush community does at delivering health care and you become part of their mission,” Bongiorno says. Continue reading →

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‘You Are Not Forgotten’: Doctor Urges Pakistan Aid

Mariam Aziz, MD, with son Humza and husband Umer Ahmad

Mariam Aziz, MD, with son Humza and husband Umer Ahmad

By Mariam Aziz, MD

When I installed satellite TV with Pakistani channels for my Pakistani nanny, I never knew how much it would open my eyes to the realities of the worst natural disaster in recent times.

I thought it was fun to watch cooking shows, soap operas, news/politics and have a glimpse of the fast paced “pop culture” there; I had a new window into the lives of some Pakistanis. In August, the news broke about the massive flooding affecting 20 million people, and I watched image after image of women, children and older men wading through water to their necks, on lands where they previously sat and lived a simple life farming, raising their children and drinking tea.

I watched in horror as the flood waters washed away homes, livestock, crops and even families. My ears ached with the wails of mothers who had watched their children disappear, or were watching them now starve to death because of the lack of food. Had my life been just a little different, and my parents hadn’t immigrated to America, that could have been my little boy, Humza, hungry in those pictures; it could have been my mother, my grandmother with tears in her eyes. My heart twinges as I hug my child even closer these days.

But then I saw the spirit of human generosity and of hope. The helicopter pilots flying rescue missions and health care workers who spend their days treating the young, the frail, the elderly. People who have no possessions sharing whatever food is available to people who are suffering with them.

When the satellite was off, my eyes came upon the news here. The funds toward Pakistan have been tragically slow and desperately insufficient. The UN continues to beg for international aid, claiming that donor fatigue or fears of corruption have caused the world to hesitate, bringing fresh tears to my eyes. Continue reading →

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Donate Blood and Help a Child

By Malissa Lichtenwalter

Today, 34 children will be diagnosed with cancer. You can help one of our Rush University Medical Center pediatric patients by donating blood or platelets here at the Rush Blood Center.

Help patients like …

  • An adolescent female who received 19 units of blood to support the blood lost during her operation to remove a cancerous bone tumor from her pelvis
  • An elementary school-age boy who arrived in Rush’s emergency department with a fever, bruising and fatigue, who was diagnosed with leukemia and immediately began chemotherapy. During the first month of treatment, he received blood components 18 times.
  • A toddler who received blood and platelets a combined 74 times during the course of her nine-month battle with advanced neuroblastoma. She’s now cancer-free and thriving.

A blood transfusion or platelet transfusion, when necessary, can dramatically affect a child’s quality of life and ability to continue on schedule with life-saving treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.

You can help save a child’s life. Please donate today … for all the little reasons, and get your own Little Reasons t-shirt. For more information, please contact me at blood_donor@rush.edu or (312) 942-7824.

Malissa Lichtenwalter is an Apheresis blood donor recruiter with the Rush Blood Center.