Hospital

Table of Contents

 

 

Also by Julie Salamon

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First published in 2008 by The Penguin Press,
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Copyright © Julie Salamon, 2008

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Salamon, Julie.
Hospital : man, woman, birth, death, infinity, plus red tape, bad behavior, money,
God, and diversity on steroids / by Julie Salamon.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-4406-3238-9

1. Maimonides Medical Center—History. 2. Hospitals—New York
(State)—New York—History.
[DNLM: 1. Maimonides Medical Center. 2. Hospitals, Urban—New York
City—Personal Narratives. 3. Cultural Diversity—New York City—Personal
Narratives. WX 28 AN7 M223S 2008] I. Title.
RA982. N5M357 2008
362.1109747’23—dc22
2007045629

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May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain. . . . Oh, God, Thou has appointed me to watch over the life and health of Thy creatures; here am I ready for my vocation, and now I turn unto my calling.

“In short, a man comes into this hospital in perfect health,” says the doctor played by George C. Scott in disbelief, on hearing about a patient’s progress through the system. “In the space of one week, we chop out one kidney, damage another, reduce him to coma, and damn near kill him.”

—from
The Hospital,
a film by Paddy Chayevsky

Cast of Characters

Stanley Brezenoff . . . . . . . . . . . former president and chief executive officer

Pamela Brier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . president and chief executive officer

Dr. David Cohen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president, medicine/senior vice
president, clinical integration

Lillian Fraidkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . senior vice president, clinical
services/chief of staff

Dr. Samuel Kopel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medical director

Mark McDougle . . . . . . . . . chief operating officer, executive vice president

Robert Naldi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chief financial officer

Sheila Namm .................. . .vice president, professional affairs

Sondra Olendorf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . senior vice president, nursing
and hospital operations

Martin Payson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chairman of the board

Dr. Alan Astrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . associate director, medical oncology

Bill Camilleri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president

Dr. Jay Cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . director, cancer center/chair,
radiation oncology

Dr. Bernadine Donahue . . . . . . . . . . associate director, radiation oncology

Dr. Yiwu Huang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medical oncologist

Nella Khenkin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . social worker

Dr. Sushma Nakka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oncology fellow

Dr. Beth Popp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pain-management specialist

Dr. Petra Rietschel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medical oncologist

Dr. Philip Rubin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medical oncologist

Dr. Kathir Suppiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oncology fellow

Dr. Jason Tache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oncology fellow

Dr. Mendel Warshawsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oncology fellow

Jo Ann Baldwin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . assistant vice president,
community outreach

Marcel Biberfeld . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president, psychiatry and community services

Ann Marie Ceriale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nursing manager, ER

Lilia Colon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . labor-management developer

Dr. Joseph Cunningham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chair, department of surgery/
senior vice president, strategic initiatives

Dr. Steven Davidson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chair, emergency medicine

Clarence Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . director, safety

Dr. David Feldman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president, perioperative services

Maria Ferlita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president, finance

Dr. David Gregorius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ER resident

Douglas Jablon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vice president, patient relations/special
assistant to the president

Dr. Israel Jacobowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cardiac surgeon

Chris Kam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . social worker

Kathryn Kaplan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chief learning officer

Lisa Keen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . social worker

Eileen Keilitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nurse

Carol Kidney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . director of nursing, women’s services

Dr. David Kho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . radiology resident

Dr. Steven Konstadt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chair, anesthesiology

Dr. Stephen Lahey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chief, cardiothoracic surgery

Dr. Richard Lazzaro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . surgeon

Dr. Bing Lu . . . . . . . . . . . medical director, Maimonides clinic, Chinatown

Pamela Mestel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . director of nursing, perioperative services

Dr. Howard Minkoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chair, obstetrics and gynecology

Margie Morales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . environmental worker

Dr. Carl Ramsay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . medical director, emergency medicine

Madeline Rivera . . . . . . . . . . . . associate vice president, case management

Dr. Jacob Shani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . chief of Cardiac Institute

Dr. Allan Strongwater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . former chair, orthopedics

Dr. Regina Tarkovsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hospitalist

Dr. Gregory Todd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hospitalist

Janice Yang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . director of outreach to Asian community

Marie and Tina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . patient and her sister

Dr. Michael Bashevkin . . . . . . . oncologist, former partner of Samuel Kopel

Michael Bloomberg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mayor of New York City

Asghar Choudhri . . . . . . . . . . unofficial mayor of Little Pakistan, Brooklyn

Daniel Dube . . . . . . . . . . . . grandson of Newman Dube, hospital founder

Bernie Gips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Borough Park Hatzolah coordinator

Ms. Hernandez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . patient

Dov Hikind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New York State assemblyman

Marty Markowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brooklyn borough president

Miriam Lubling . . . . . . . . . . . . . founder, Rivkah Laufer Guardians of the
Sick, major source of patient referrals

Elliot “Lazer” Rosman . . . . . . . . . . . . Borough Park Hatzolah coordinator

Hafiz Mohammad Sabir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . imam, Makki Mosque

Aaron Twerski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . board of trustees, Maimonides

Mr. Zen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . patient

Prologue

This story began with a telephone call. Jo Ann Baldwin, a fast-talking, funny, Italian-American woman with a strong Brooklyn accent, had reached me through my publisher. Between the rush of words and wisecracks, I discerned that she had read my book about charity and philanthropy based on the teachings of the medieval Jewish philosopher and physician Maimonides. The pitch was this: She was an administrator at a hospital called Maimonides, she was certain we had a karmic connection, and she wanted to meet.

While I’d visited hospitals often enough for the usual reasons, and had even been a candy striper in high school, I had no special interest in them, had never written about them, and didn’t even watch medical dramas on TV. I left medicine to the professionals in my family, of whom there have been many: my father, sister, stepbrother, and brother-in-law. On the phone, Baldwin wasn’t very clear about what she wanted, but she was amusing and unrelenting. We agreed to meet.