Back from the Dead and Very Much Alive
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When Bill and Hilary Greenberg flew to Costa Rica in April 2012 for a scuba vacation they were not new to diving. In fact, they took their first dive together on their honeymoon 18 years ago and have been going to the bottom of the ocean ever since. Both physicians and certified divers they felt secure enough to introduce their three boys, ages 15, 14 and 11 to the sport and planned another idyllic week diving in the indigo waters of the Catalina Islands off the western shore of Costa Rica under the supervision of Pacific Coast Divers. The area is known as a scuba haven with a spectacular array of marine life.
Less than 24 hours into their trip they set out for their first dive. Hilary and Bill planned to spend the day with one instructor and sent the boys off with another instructor to work on mastering their diving skills. After the morning dive the group gathered on the boat to rest and snack and then set out near a coral reef for their afternoon dive.
The instructor told the group to follow the current next to the reef and they all plunged in. About ten minutes into the dive the 
group was hit by a sudden surge and pushed rapidly through a rock formation. Just seconds after the rush, Bill looked up and realized that Hilary was nowhere to be found. He frantically signaled to the instructor who signaled the group to stay put while he swam back upstream from where they had come. Minutes later he was back and signaled that she was not there. The instructor motioned for the group to continue forward and as they swam on Bill caught a glimpse of Hilary's dive suit at the bottom of the reef. He swam to the other side of the reef and found her lying on the coral, unresponsive and without her regulator in her mouth.
Bill and the dive master lifted Hilary's lifeless body up to the surface of the water and inflated her buoyancy control device. Once on top of the water Bill attempted to do CPR in the water but only managed to get a few breaths into her while they awaited the boat, which was some distance away. Due to the waves and the distance, the instructor was having trouble making contact with it. It was several minutes before it arrived. When it did, they hoisted her onto the floor of the boat and Bill continued to do CPR, checking for a pulse – which he could not detect.
At that point, his wife's eyes were dilated and fixed, her lips blue, and she had no pulse. Bill continued the CPR, desperately hoping that he would soon see some sign of life. But as the minutes wore on, she failed to resume breathing, her eyes stared into nothingness, he felt no pulse and began to fear that his efforts were in vain.
In normal medical practice CPR should be applied for 20 minutes, although it has been suggested that more extended CPR can be effective. Bill and the others continued to work on her as they waited for the boat to get them back to shore.
Diving protocol requires that the boat stay out until all the divers in the area could be retrieved. At some point, the Greenberg's three boys returned to the boat and saw their mom lying lifeless and their dad desperately attempting to revive her.
Some 20 minutes after she was hauled out of the water, the Costa Rican Coast Guard arrived in a boat and Bill was hopeful that their EMT's would take over the CPR. The Coast Guard team boarded the boat, put a mask over Hilary's face and started to give her oxygen. However Bill realized that the mask was leaking and that Hilary's chest was not rising and falling with each surge of oxygen. He waved off the EMT's and resumed his efforts while the boat travelled to shore.
They were met at the beach by an EMS team and a doctor with a defibrillator that was attached to Hilary and showed that she had a heart rhythm. That team intubated Hilary – putting a tube down her throat so that they could have better control of her airway and quickly hoisted her into an ambulance for the 40-minute ride to the nearest hospital.
Bill travelled in another ambulance behind Hilary and the boys followed in a car not knowing if their mother would come out of this alive. Once at the hospital the doctors ran a few tests on Hilary. She remained unresponsive and appeared to be in a coma. Her breathing was stabilized but there was little else that was hopeful about her status. The Diver's Alert Network (DAN) quickly swung into action and was able to arrange air transport from Costa Rica to Florida that night for the Greenberg family. They moved swiftly and around 10 pm they took off for Ft. Lauderdale Airport with Hilary stretched out in the middle of the small plane hooked up to the ventilator. Once they landed, they were met by an ambulance that transported Hilary to Del Ray Hospital.
The family ended up staying in Del Ray from Sunday until the following Saturday where Hilary remained unresponsive and breathing with the help of the ventilator. Though her legs and arms moved she could not follow any commands. A CT scan of her brain showed no injury but doctors could not assess her chances of recovering. They simply said it was "too early to tell" and "we have to be lucky." When the family left on Saturday, Hilary's eyes had begun to track but there were no other signs of brain function.
Ten days after the accident it was determined that she could breathe on her own and she was transported to the Neuro ICU at Columbia University Hospital in New York. Despite one doctor's claim that she was brain dead, the second set of tests performed at Columbia looked more positive.
On the second day of her stay at Columbia, the first of many miracles occurred. According to her medical school friend Dr. Diana Deutsch. here's an account of Hilary's first breakthrough. "When Hilary came back to New York after being stabilized enough to travel, I got to see her at the Columbia Neuro ICU for the first time. It was horrifying to see her in that state, and yet hope came when suddenly, out of a semiconscious state, she looked me right in the eye and said, 'Diana, please help me.' This is the first responsive thing she had said since the accident."
Hilary's brother-in-law Mitch also came by and Hilary recognized him and called out his name. The staff at Columbia began occupational therapy and kept her there for four days until they could get her into Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains. Once there, though she was still "semi-comatose" they decided to lift the pain medications she was on due to the injury to her ribs during CPR and that helped to improve her mental state.
She began to make small improvements though she still had great difficulty speaking and was only able to name a few fruits at the start. Though her husband visited her daily, she had no memory of his visits, and each time he came she accused him of "never coming to see her." She finally asked her friend to post a sign-in sheet on the wall so that she could track who had been in to see her. She kept insisting she was stupid until another friend assured her that she had graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley and that she was frustrated, not stupid. During her five-week stay at Burke, she required constant supervision and was secured to her bed as she was so confused that she would walk into walls. At times she thought she was at the hospital working as a doctor, and tried to wheel herself out of the facility to go home.
Speaking about that time in Hilary's recovery, lifelong friend Wendy Stober says, "Hilary would get annoyed with me when I would arrive at Burke in the morning and would not take her home. She so desperately wanted to go home. She would tell the nurse that I did not care about my children so I could stay but she needed to go home to her boys. She knew she had children and she so very much wanted to be with them and take care of them."
Hilary continually asked for her sister and her father, though her sister had passed away ten years earlier and her dad had been gone for five. Bill decided to let her know that they were gone and she cried for hours, re-experiencing her initial grief at the loss.
Following five weeks of intensive therapy Hilary was given the okay to go home. Even at the house she required 24/7 supervision, and also continued to return to Burke three days a week for speech and cognitive therapy.
Neighbors in Edgemont jumped to her aid. They did everything from supplying months of meals to the family, to supervising Hilary at home and scheduling her rides to and from therapy at Burke throughout the summer.
Now six months after the accident, doctors predict that Hilary will make a 100% recovery – but by all outward signs she's already there. She speaks fluidly, has a wonderful sense of humor and shows no outward signs of the trauma she experienced. Her rehab nurses have told her that her speedy recovery was helped by her natural intelligence. She looks forward to taking her medical boards in April and getting back to work when she is fully recovered.
How could someone recover completely after being without oxygen for an estimated nine minutes? Though doctors say this is a unique case, Bill has several theories. At the time of the drowning, Hilary was in very cold water and the hypothermia may have helped to prevent injury to her brain cells. More importantly, Bill performed CPR for a full 45 minutes – never giving up, though traditionally codes end in the hospital after patients fail to respond in 20 minutes. He notes that following her accident new research was announced in the NY Times that confirmed that prolonged CPR improves the chance of survival.
Many factors may have contributed to Hilary's surprising come back. Among these are the power of prayer, as the Jewish prayer for healing, known as the Mi Sheberakh was being said for her at temples all over the country. Her will to live and diligent approach to therapy also may have helped. But she gives full credit to her husband Bill's knowledge of CPR and his valiant efforts to save her – when from all appearances she was gone. She's very much alive today and encourages everyone who is reading this article to learn CPR – just in case!
Drs. William and Hilary Gleekman-Greenberg live in Edgemont with their three boys. Bill recently opened SkinTheraP, specializing in cosmetic medicine on the Popham Road Bridge in Scarsdale.
What an Inspiration
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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I had heard that Tony Wagner was a forward thinker, but with limited knowledge of the field of educational innovation I didn't expect to be wowed when I signed up to attend his lecture. Wagner, a Harvard University Professor and author of four books on fostering change in education, was originally scheduled to speak here after Hurricane Sandy but was unable to come due to the storm. His visit was rescheduled for Wednesday, December 5. He spent the day meeting with teachers, parents, administrators and members of the Board of Education and completed his visit with a talk for the community on Wednesday night.
He recently published his fourth book, "Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World" and has been on the road to share his insights. According to Wagner, educators have spent the last 30 years thinking about how to bring up the worst performing students while neglecting educational innovation for all. In a world where courses can be taken online and degrees earned without attending school, Wagner is examining the value of education and what should happen in the classroom to create innovators for tomorrow.
To find out, Wagner has interviewed today's business leaders to discern what skills are essential to success and he is convinced that critical thinking and problem solving are foremost. He also believes that those who will thrive have the ability to collaborate across networks and lead across disciplines, are agile, adaptable, innovative and entrepreneurial. They are effective speakers and know how to infuse their writing with a clear voice and perspective.
The big disconnect for Wagner is that many schools in this country, including some of the most prestigious high schools, are singularly focused on conveying content and preparing students for tests. In his view, these schools fail to encourage the skills that students will need most to succeed on the job and in the world.
Contradictions abound ... Wagner points out that:
- The current culture of learning celebrates individual achievement but innovation is a team sport.
- Students are now rewarded for specialization and compartmentalization of knowledge but innovation demands a problem-based interdisciplinary approach.
- The current culture of schooling creates a passive experience with kids sitting at desks and guessing what's on the teacher's mind when the emphasis should be on creating not listening.
- Students are now penalized for failure and discouraged from taking risks, creating a culture of compliance... however innovation requires risk-taking, failing and learning from mistakes.
In Wagner's view, our prevailing mode of education leaves many students bored and unmotivated. He believes that teachers should help students unlock their passion for learning and encourage risk-taking and creativity. Classrooms should be safe, supportive environments were students can experiment rather than being marked down for failures.
He also believes that throughout their school years, students should develop digital portfolios of their work that
can supplement a transcript that shows only grades.
Wagner applauded the Scarsdale Schools for taking bold steps toward innovation in learning. He credited Scarsdale with dropping the test-centric AP curriculum and substituting an AT track that incorporates the values he supports. He also praised the school for developing initiatives that foster critical thinking skills for students at all grade levels such as the Capstone Projects.
Earlier in the day, Wagner spoke to the staff of the high school at an after school meeting. Over 200 teachers signed up to see him, and registration for the event had to be cut off due to limited space in the room. Wagner reviewed presentations from Scarsdale teachers who have received grant funding from the district's new Center for Innovation to pursue projects that further the district's objective to integrate critical and creative thinking skills into many areas of the curriculum. More details about these projects will be available in the coming weeks on Scarsdale10583.
Wagner is a dynamic speaker and a visionary with revolutionary ideas that will make you reconsider what you value in education. If you missed Tony Wagner's talk and want to learn more about him, watch his TED talks here:
Photo credits: Jerry Crisci and Vicki Presser
Dr. Rhoda Narins Honored by American Society for Dermatological Surgery
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Scarsdale's Rhoda Narins, M.D., received the Samuel J. Stegman, MD, Award for Distinguished Service at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) in Atlanta. The Samuel J. Stegman, MD, Award for Distinguished Service – established in 1996 – honors individuals who have made major contributions in furthering the goals of the ASDS. The areas of these contributions can be in education, organizational service or research.
Dr. Narins, a dermatologic surgeon, serves as Clinical Professor of Dermatology at New York University Medical Center and has her own private practice – Dermatology Surgery and Laser Center – with two offices in New York. She earned her medical degree and completed her dermatology residency at New York University.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Narins has been a generous teacher and mentor to countless dermatologists. She has made several major contributions to the field of dermatology but is perhaps best known for teaching and being a pioneer in liposuction.
Dr. Narins has more than 75 peer-reviewed articles to her credit and has additionally authored numerous textbooks and book chapters. She has given more than 100 lectures worldwide. She has led 25 research projects and trained numerous fellows. Dr. Narins has served on the editorial board of several journals and is an Assistant Editor of Dermatologic Surgery. She has been a valuable member of the ASDS since 1982, lecturing regularly at the Annual Meetings and serving on a variety of committees, task forces and holding offices – culminating in being elected president in 2004. She continues to support the ASDS, serving on several work groups and is a Founding Member of the Stegman Circle.
"Rhoda has been an invaluable leader for the ASDS from its earliest days," said William Coleman III, MD, a fellow Stegman Award winner. "She has always managed to bring fun to the table while at the same time exhibiting a great talent for problem-solving. She knows how to bring out the best in people."
Dr. Narins and her husband, David Narins, M.D., have two children – Jon and Valerie – and four grandchildren: Sydney, Peyton, Willow and Hudson.
Mark Seiden and Ronnie Cohn Honored at Congregation Kol Ami
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While the legacy of some congregants to their temple is a name in a prayer book or an inscription on a plaque, the Co-Presidents of Congregation Kol Ami set their sights on a far more ambitious bequest to their synagogue. Mark Seiden and Ronnie Cohn Farley, who have served as Co-Presidents of Kol Ami since 2010, worked tirelessly to gain consensus and raise $4 million to reconstruct the sanctuary to replace one that was badly in need of restoration.
Despite skepticism from some about the feasibility of raising this lofty sum at the time of a serious economic downturn, the two forged on and were successful at seeing the project to fruition. With the help of a committee of dedicated congregants and Mark's wife, Andrea Seiden, they sought donations both small and significant from the congregation, retained architects to design a state-of-the-art sanctuary and oversaw the construction of a dazzling new sacred space.
Construction began in the spring of 2012 with the goal of completion before the High Holidays in September. But, as often happens, a few weeks before Rosh Hashonah it became evident that the sanctuary would not be ready in time for the Days of Awe. What to do? Not many facilities in Westchester have the capacity to hold the entire membership of Kol Ami – along with family and friends that accompany them to services. The staff searched for an alternate venue and considered renting video monitors but then had a brainstorm... why not set up a temporary bima in their social hall? Hard to imagine but it worked – they built a bima, set up folding chairs to accommodate thousands, switched the orientation of the room and held services without a hitch.
Perhaps this is why the two Co-Presidents were named the Congregation Kol Ami 2012 Man and Woman of the Year and honored at a dinner during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on Sunday November 4th. Just that week, in an effort to help congregants through a troubling time, the temple opened their doors and provided everything a "powerless" family would need. In the words of Ronnie Farley, "Kol Ami is always an amazing community, but this past week surpassed even what we have come to expect. By early Tuesday morning, scores of emails were going back with the subject line "Checking In" and offers of warmth, food, shelter, hot coffee, internet and phone access, and companionship." The following Friday, "Prompted by a couple of congregants, clergy, and others, a late afternoon email went out entitled "NEED HEAT?!" We offered our carpeted social hall and auditorium to those who wanted to bring sleeping bags. We provided heat, light, bathrooms (as well as of course coffee, juice and cookies) instead of their cold, dark homes overnight. Two families stayed Friday night, last night and the offer stands until it is no longer needed."
By Sunday night, an elegant dinner in honor of Seiden and Cohn was held in the same room that hours before had served as a shelter. Introductory remarks were made by Sisterhood President Ellen Kurtz, the honorees received a musical tribute from Rabbi Shira Milgrom and Mayor Tom Roach of White Plains was also on hand to thank the Co-Presidents for their work on behalf of the community.
In his remarks, Mark Seiden, a Scarsdale resident, reflected on the experience of leading a large synagogue where much of the work is done by volunteers." As an attorney, I am necessarily results oriented. While the results we have collectively achieved for Kol Ami are critical, and a source of satisfaction, perhaps more importantly, I have come to realize that it is the process by which these results are achieved, that is as, or more important than the results themselves. It is the process that causes you to work with and bond with a diverse group of people on a regular basis, form new friendships and connect with the community."
"I soon came to realize that getting things done with a talented and committed corps of volunteers, was a very different process from getting things done in a law office. In the "for-profit" environment, there are systemic and obvious rewards and disincentives. However, in a volunteer environment, all that goes out the window. You have to dig deeper and evaluate as to how best to tap into what gives people meaning. You have to facilitate collaboration and empower people to do more. You have to listen carefully and importantly, you have to recognize and thank people. In his "Ted Talk", Simon Senak, the author of "Start with Why" concisely analyzed the phenomena Ronnie and I experience almost every day through our work at Kol Ami. He observed, "If you hire people because they can do a job, they'll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood, sweat and tears."
Reflecting on her term as Co-President and Hurricane Sandy, Cohn commented on the power of community: "These acts of good will, through gestures large and small, are further proof of what we already know. When we face adversity, we run towards one another, not away. During the most trying times, we step up for our neighbors and communities." That is why it is a privilege to be a part of this family as well as my own. That is why I am so honored by your tribute."
Photo Credit: Mariela Melamed
Need Help Recovering From Sandy? Call Y.E.S. -Youth Employment Service of Scarsdale
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As we try to return to normalcy after Sandy, we also know the holidays are just around the corner. Need help at home or in your business?
Just say Y.E.S.! Y.E.S. brings together bright, responsible Scarsdale students, 14 years and older, with employers like you in your homes and businesses in Scarsdale. Students can help where you need it. Need a hand to clean out your basement, bring out winter clothes? Rake leaves, stack fallen tree limbs, or shovel snow? Straighten up the house for Thanksgiving dinner or your special holiday party? Hang holiday decorations, or make them? Send out holiday cards or party invitations? Help with your party? Do arts & crafts or bake cookies with your kids while you work?? No need to stress! Just say Y.E.S.!
Students have filled jobs as tutors, baby-sitters, mother's helpers, sales, office and stock clerks, delivery persons, painters, sports helpers, computer/word processors, and much more! Each year hundreds of jobs are listed and FILLED!
If you want to hire a student, go online TODAY at http://scarsdale.ny.hs-ses.com and register as an employer and list the job you need. Students register and search for jobs online as well. For more information, go to http://scarsdale.ny.hs-ses.com, call 723-7343 (messages are accepted 24/7) or e-mail [email protected]. Y.E.S. also maintains an office at Scarsdale High School. During the school year, the office is open to students Monday through Friday from 11:30am to 1:30pm.
Y.E.S., a nonprofit community organization, has been providing its services for more than 40 years, to students and employers at no charge. What could be easier?
Y.E.S. is not funded by the school district or any PTA or other organization and depends solely on donations from the community to cover its costs to provide its services.
