On Thursday, January 25th 2007, St. Lucie Medical Center (SLMC) received a call at 9:50 a.m. that there was a potential Hazardous Material exposure at St. Anastasia School and was notified by Emergency Medical Services personnel that it would be getting students from the school who had been exposed to an unknown substance. Based on this information and not knowing exactly how many students it was going to receive, SLMC administrators decided at 10:05 to call a Code Orange (Haz Mat). A few minutes later EMS called with additional information stating that up to 40 people had been exposed and asked the hospital how many patients it could handle. After careful assessment, SLMC notified EMS that it could safely take up to 15 patients. By the end of the day, SLMC treated a total of 12 students and 1 faculty member.

Approximately six members of the hospital haz-mat team immediately reported to the decontamination shower area to help arriving patients. Upon arrival, those patients who had been exposed to the potentially harmful substance were taken to the decontamination room attached to the ER. The hospital haz-mat team explained to the patients how the decontaminating process worked and answered any questions that they had. The remaining ER staff set up the ER fast-track area as the treatment area and all students who had been exposed were treated in this area. The outpatient lobby was used as the receiving area for family and media.

Once SLMC received word that no additional students/faculty needed medical attention, the decision was made at noon that same day to call an all clear.



It was mid-July, so school had been out for about a month. Still, the eight middle school-aged kids sat in a classroom, scanning a notebook full of educational materials.

Lani VanSickle, manager of the Martin Memorial Center for Health and Healing, stood in front of them and discussed their goal for the HealthyLIFE Youth Weight Management Program: to learn ways to improve their eating habits and their physical fitness.

The inaugural program is targeted at kids entering fifth through eighth grades who may already be overweight or close to it, making them more at risk for type 2 diabetes.

“You have sports camps out there, but as far as trying to identify youth who are at risk for diabetes, this is the only thing I know of out here,” VanSickle said. “We felt there was a demographic that was sorely needing the services. We’d meet with older diabetic patients and they would ask if we have anything for kids.”

The program is held once a week for six weeks and combines exercise activities, an educational component and weigh-ins. It is designed to be comprehensive, focusing on improving fitness and eating habits while providing stress management tips and better self-esteem.

The kids get pedometers so they can track how far they walk each week, as well as a food diary so they can monitor their food intake as well. One class will be held at a local mall – a frequent hang-out location for the participants’ age group – to help them learn about healthier options at the food court.

“We’re trying to start with an age group where they’re becoming more independent,” VanSickle said. “They’re using the microwave more, they’re cooking more, their on their own after school. Since we started doing this, we’ve received more calls about whether we can do this for high school-aged kids as well.”



While HospiceCare is celebrating over 25 years of care giving, the real measurable difference is in the quality of days’, weeks, and months, clients receive during their passing days. When one is faced with a life ending issue time is of the essence for making any necessary preparations. These uncertainties are not only emotional for clients, but loved ones as well. Hospice has the knowledge and expertise to assist not only clients, but their family and friends as well. This facilitation of information allows the people affected to have the answers readily available to help in the grieving process.

Hospice Volunteer Pamela McNaughton with a resident.

Clients often reveal the most important issues surrounding life threatening issues are comfort, dignity, and pain management. These issues are only a few of the many services HospiceCare provides their clients. HospiceCare surrounds clients with a complete support staff to address these issues and many others. In the moments you have left, do you want to have the comfort of knowing you and your family are receiving the circle of caring, they are entitled too? Medically directed teams that not only support you but the family surrounding you?

HospiceCare of Southeast Florida, Inc. (H.C.S.E.) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing physical, emotional and spiritual care to individuals and their families coping with end of life decisions. We strive to offer the maximum comfort and support to our patients and their family while affirming the quality of life even in its most difficult moments.

Sharing memories together at the Forget Me Not Center.

Each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity. Dying and grieving are seen as a natural part of living. HospiceCare’s emphasis is on comfort so that client and family may live their remaining time together to the fullest according to their own choices. HospiceCare neither hastens nor postpones death but rather affirms life. Bereavement care to the patient’s family is offered for up to thirteen months following death.

Clients of any age, a day old to the elderly, are eligible for care through HospiceCare of Southeast Florida if he or she:

*Resides in Broward, Miami-Dade or Monroe County
*Has a life-limiting illness with a life-limiting expectancy, generally six months or less as stated by a physician
*Is currently under the care of a Florida licensed physician, who will authorize hospice care services
*Has a caregiver at home who will assume responsibility for the patient twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We will work with the family to find and maintain a safe environment.

Founded in 1981, H.C.S.E. serves Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe County residents in private homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities or wherever the patient calls “home”. In addition to patient services, H.C.S.E offers bereavement counseling, programs for children and adolescents and a variety of community outreach and educational programs to the medical community, schools, business groups and organizations.

HospiceCare has made some transitions throughout the years that have brought them to a miraculous moment for many services all over southeast Florida are now provided.

HospiceCare is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing physical, emotional and spiritual care to individuals and their families coping with end of life decisions. Founded in 1981, H.C.S.E. serves Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe County residents in private homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities or wherever the patient calls “home”. Bougainvilla, an eight-bed hospice facility in Ft. Lauderdale, provides housing and care to individuals who are not able to remain at home. In addition to patient services, HospiceCare of Southeast Florida, Inc., offers bereavement counseling, programs for children and adolescents and a variety of community outreach and educational programs to the medical community, schools, business groups and organizations. HospiceCare of Southeast Florida, Inc., is licensed by the State of Florida, accredited by the Joint Commission of Accreditation for Health Care Organizations, and is certified by Medicare and Medicaid.

Please join us during National Hospice Month for “Thanks for the Memories” memory event and “Season of Remembrance”, a holiday event celebrating those we have loved and lost on November 20, 2007.



As a public hospital, Jackson Memorial Hospital depends on the generosity of donors to help fund many of its programs and capital improvements. To reward these philanthropists, the hospital established the Golden Angel Society to ensure that these donors are well taken care of when seeking treatment for their own health issues.

“Approximately six years ago, we established the Golden Angel Society to give back to those who donate large amounts of time and money to the hospital,” said program manager Ingrid Delgado, who has worked for Jackson Memorial Foundation for the past nine years. “What better way to show our appreciation than to help these individuals when they need it most?”

As the manager of the program, Delgado helps to set up appointments for these donors with specialists and well as helps to streamline the admission process when they come to the hospital. “I help cut through the red tape in order to get these patients earlier appointments with specialists, who often are not even booking appointments until mid-next year,” explained Delgado. “I also get all of the patients’ paperwork ready so that they can bypass the admissions bureaucracy and go straight to their rooms.”

Through the Society, donors and their immediate families are also provided with 24-hour access to worldwide medical care through the Executive Registry program. The program, designed to help Society members who are traveling, enables them to receive immediate emergency care while out of the country or one-day appointments for regular medical consultations from renowned medical centers and specialists.

Approximately 600 individuals are members of the Golden Angel Society, which requires donors to give more than $50,000 to the hospital foundation. Delgado estimates that she has so far helped about 75 percent of the program’s members, who in turn help fund the hospital’s mission.

“It’s a very challenging job, because people sometimes resent that I am trying to expedite things for a single person—they says that everyone should be treated as a VIP,” she explained. “But what I do helps everybody; without donations from these individuals, we would not be able to offer the same high level of care that we do, or renovate our facilities using the public dollars that we have.

“For example, donations to the Foundation helped us to remodel our Holtz Children’s Hospital, as well as establish the pediatric ICU,” she continued. “Jackson Memorial Hospital depends on the Foundation to raise the money it needs to make the hospital better.” As a public hospital, Jackson Memorial Hospital is responsible for delivering public health to all of Miami-Dade County’s 2.3 million residents, regardless of their ability to pay.

In addition to helping members of the Golden Angel Society, Delgado is also responsible for providing hospitality services for foreign patients through the hospital’s International Program. “People are often transferred here from other countries as inpatients, and it’s my job to help guide them through the system,” said Delgado, who speaks English, Spanish and a little Italian. “I also assist them with outpatient scheduling.”

Before working with the Jackson Memorial Foundation, Delgado worked for a psychiatrist and for an ophthalmologist. “I knew that I wanted to stay in the medical field,” said Delgado, who describes herself as a people person. “What I like most about what I’m doing now is that I can help people when they’re going through a difficult time—when someone tells me that I’ve been a comfort to them, that just does it for me.”

Other benefits of becoming a member of the Golden Angel Society include permanent recognition on Jackson Memorial Hospital’s major donor wall, preferred seating and special recognition at all events, dedication of a room or other facility at the hospital, as well as invitations to private social functions. What may be most important, however, is the personalized care that donors receive from Delgado herself.

“It’s not an easy job; often it’s really hard work to cut through the red tape to provide these patients with the care that they need,” said Delgado. “But it’s extremely rewarding at the end of the day to know that I’ve helped somebody, and that by helping them, even more of the hospital’s patients will benefit.”



With evaluation and treatment plans that often begin while a baby is still in utero, the Cardiac Center at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital relies on a total team approach to manage its patients – some as young as a few hours old. The Center, established in 2004, is the only program that provides congenital cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology in Broward or Palm Beach counties, according to Dr. Frank Scholl, Director of Cardiac Surgery at the center.

Patients and their families work closely with pediatric cardiac surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, pediatric intensivists and pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, as well as variety of specialized nursing support staff to round out the team. But no matter which team member the family is dealing with or what stage the patient is at in his or her care, the Cardiac Center utilizes a family-centered care approach.

“While we offer the highest possible level of skilled clinicians and compassionate care, we still rely on the patient and family to be the focal point of care,” explained Dr. Scholl. “Other than in the operating room and catheterization suite, family members have unlimited access to their loved ones even in the Pediatric Intensive Care unit.”

The physician team includes (l-r): Dr. Lilliam Valdes-Cruz, Dr. Mark Boucek, Dr. Richard Perryman, Dr. Frank Scholl and Dr. Kak-Chen Chan.

In fact, surgeries on newborns are often scheduled for when the child is five to seven days old in order to give babies a chance to bond with their families and become adept at breastfeeding or taking a bottle. Given these opportunities, Dr. Scholl has found that the tiny patients recover faster and with fewer complications.

Just 10 or 15 years ago, many of the babies that the Cardiac Center at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital treats would never have survived. Innovative methodologies, such as the hybrid approach to congenital heart lesions where surgeons and interventional cardiologists work together to accomplish improved outcomes, as well as the implementation of programs like LifeWings – designed to improve patient safety – are improving the quality of life of congenital heart patients.

In fact, according to Dr. Scholl, the successful treatment of children with congenital heart disease has created an entirely new patient population of adults living with congenital heart disease. Even though the Cardiac Center’s mission is to provide the best pediatric cardiac care to its patients and families, its charter includes offering a continuum of compassionate, congenital cardiac care which is increasingly including patients well over 18 years old.

The Cardiac Center at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital prides itself on having the complete range of cardiac services under one roof. The Pediatric Heart Station, opened two years ago, is the central focus of the diagnosis and management for both clinical and interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. It offers some of the latest technology in diagnostic cardiac imaging, EKGs, Holter monitoring, stress tests, tilt tests, pre-admission testing and both patient and family education.

While Cardiac Center team members all have unique, highly-specialized cardiac skills, they hold a common bond. Dr. Scholl emphasized, “We share a passion for superior outcomes, the highest levels of safety and utilizing the most innovative techniques to achieve the best quality of life for our patients.”