Reprinted with permission, courtesy: The Asbury Park Press on 02/23/07
BY CAROL GORGA WILLIAMS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
LONG BRANCH — Nine-year-old Jack McLoone is an old hand at showing newcomers the ropes.
This, he says, while navigating a circuitous route through the maze of spaces, is one of the infusion rooms. And this is his favorite room, he says of the space decorated in a surfing motif.
"That was originally a real surfboard," he said of what serves now as the top of an examination table. Why is it his favorite? "Because it is really cool."
Aside from being a tour guide, Jack, of Little Silver, is a cancer patient at The Valerie Fund, one of seven Valerie Fund hospitals in New Jersey that treat more than 5,000 children with cancer and blood disorders every year.
Some days, "You can't even tell you're sick at all, they make you feel so at home," Jack said of The Valerie Fund at Monmouth Medical Center, where each of the seven rooms has a separate theme.
Dr. Margaret C. Fisher, medical director of the Children's Hospital, says future expansion of pediatric facilities will make the rest of the rooms look like the Valerie center: cheery and child-centered.
For Beth McLoone, Jack's mother, the convenience of a Children's Hospital nearby has made all the difference. Monmouth is one of two in the Shore area. Jersey Shore University Medical Center has its K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital.
McLoone recalls that when her son first became ill, she made an appointment for a consultation at Hackensack University Medical Center. But she went in another direction.
"I could not imagine putting him in that car — with all the nausea and exhaustion," she said. "Being 10 minutes away is great."
The Children's Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center is one of 250 such specialized facilities in the country, part of a movement that acknowledges children are not merely little adults: They require specially trained and attuned health-care workers, according to the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions.
Monmouth Medical Center, an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care Center, got its new facility licensed by the state in January 2006, just three months after Jersey Shore got its license. It is one of eight state-designated children's hospitals.
The designation for Monmouth encompasses all the health care services devoted to pediatric patients, with 140 pediatric specialists in 30 subspecialties from asthma to urology. It includes such facilities as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Cranmer Ambulatory Surgery Center, the pediatric emergency department and the Valerie Fund — named for a childhood cancer victim.
The Children's Hospital participates in clinical trials for cancer treatment and cystic fibrosis, according to Fisher.
Monmouth Medical Center, which delivers more babies than any hospital in Monmouth or Ocean counties, is licensed for 23 NIC patients at a time but often goes over that, accommodating as many as 38, as long as services are available, said Cristen Glende, a registered nurse who is clinical director of the Regional Newborn Center.
A new license will soon provide for 31 beds, under the terms of a proposed multimillion-dollar expansion.
"If anyone has $8 million to give us, let me know," Glende joked.
Registered nurse Megan Kroeze has proposed "Big Steps for Little Feet," an inaugural fundraising walk on the boardwalk near Pier Village on Sept. 16.
"Children can get really sick really quickly, and they can get well really quickly," said Dawn Brown, director of the emergency department. "These physicians are trained to pick up on that."
At the Cranmer center, about 45 percent of the surgeries are for pediatric conditions. On request, children can have presurgical tours so the facility is presented in a non-threatening way.
"Generally, the parents are very happy with the care they've received here because they feel the child has been paid attention to," said Rose Polasky, director of the center. "That's a big plus for this place because we are very, very child-focused, and everyone is very aware how anxious the parents are, and we try to take care of them as well."
[ top ] [ back to news index ] |
|
|
