Fuad Sawaya Continues Work of Helen Sawaya Fund to Create Top ...

18 St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals
T he
Helen Sawaya
Helen Sawaya Fund supports many complementary
therapies at Roosevelt Hospital,
including a music therapy program where certified
music therapists help patients express their feelings
through music. Thanks to the Fund, the program was
able to buy a variety of instruments, including guitars,
keyboards, and percussion instruments.
Since 2005, hundreds of cancer patients have received special
therapies to increase their comfort and enhance their state
of mind during treatment. Under the leadership of Gabiel Sara,
MD, Executive Director of the Patient Services initiative at the
Continuum Cancer Centers of New York, St Luke’s Roosevelt, the
Fund has allowed patients to enjoy a wide array of benefits—from
massage to music therapy. Recently, Lance Armstrong visited
Roosevelt Hospital because he wanted to see a top notch complementary
therapy program in action.
“Even patients who are not musicians will start playing an
instrument, and it takes their minds off the chemotherapy
and the side effects,” Dr. Sara noted, adding that the hospital
Fuad Sawaya Continues
Work of Helen Sawaya
Fund to Create Top Notch
Complementary Cancer
Care Program
Recognized by Cancer Survivor
and Seven Time Tour de France
Champion Lance Armstrong
“The art program creates an incredibly
warm and loving atmosphere. I’ve seen
grandmothers sitting there for several hours,
making things for their grandchildren.”
is currently running a study comparing patients who receive
chemotherapy with and without music therapy.
Now, thanks to a generous donation of $150,000 from Fuad
Sawaya, Roosevelt’s cancer patients will be able to receive
this exceptional care for a long time to come.
“Our goal is to improve the patient’s quality of life by taking
their attention away from what doesn’t make them feel well,
the cancer and the cancer treatment and its side effects,” said
Dr. Sara. “And it’s not just the patients who love it. The nurses
and doctors see the benefits the patients are experiencing, and
they feel good about it, too.”
“When Dr. Sara first came up with the idea for the Fund, I
thought it was a brilliant idea. Little things can make such a
big difference, especially when you’re being treated for cancer,”
Mr. Sawaya said. “Helen was a very giving person. Even during
her illness, she helped to make a difference in people’s lives,
and that’s what the Helen Sawaya Fund is doing now.”
Since its inception in 2005, the Helen Sawaya Fund has served
as the backbone to the Patients Services Initiative, a program
that provides patients with a variety of complemen tary
therapies to help ease their cancer treatment. Today, six

years later, the program continues to grow steadily, thanks to the
enthusiastic efforts of its team and the generosity of our donors
such as Mr. Sawaya.
Another complementary therapy offered at Roosevelt is the
Artist-in-Residence Program, in which patients engage in handson
visual arts while receiving chemotherapy. A variety of art
supplies are available, and a professionally trained artist guides
the patient.
“The art program creates an incredibly warm and loving atmosphere.
I’ve seen grandmothers sitting there for several hours,
making things for their grandchildren,” Dr. Sara said. “One couple
asked to stay longer after the chemotherapy session was over
because they were having so much fun.”
The hospital also offers a travel program, in which patients enter
a raffle for a chance to win either a cruise or a weekend at a
Massachusetts B&B. “The goal of this program is to help patients
dream about the future while they are on chemotherapy,”
St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals 19
Michael L. Grossbard, MD, Frank J.
Cracolici, Lance Armstrong, Gabriel
Sara, MD, and Fuad Sawaya
Dr. Sara said. “When you’re thinking about an upcoming trip, you
have something to look forward to while you’re getting treatment.”
In addition to purchasing massage chairs for the radiation
therapy areas, the Helen Sawaya Fund also supports a massage
therapist who performs hand massages for patients. “I don’t
know her secret, but patients feel on cloud nine when she comes
over,” Dr. Sara said.
Dr. Sara is dedicated to finding more ways to help ease the
burdens of cancer patients. In the future, he hopes to add reiki
therapy, yoga, guided imagery, and other complementary therapies
to the program.
“I’ve been very impressed with everything that Dr. Sara has been
able to accomplish over the last five years,” Mr. Sawaya said.
“It’s wonderful that the Helen Sawaya Fund has been able to help
improve the quality of life for so many cancer patients, and I know
Helen would have appreciated that.”

20 St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals
Safer and More
Effective Cancer Drugs
for Surgery Patients
Richard Whelan, MD, Chief, Colon and Rectal
Surgery and Chief, Surgical Oncology, St. Luke’s
and Roosevelt, and his colleagues are performing research
to find cancer drugs that can be taken safely
and effectively during a vital time.
Standard drugs for cancer treatment can impede wound healing
and can’t be given to patients in the month leading to surgery
and in the first month after surgery. Unfortunately, this is when
cancer patients could benefit greatly from such drugs.
“We believe that surgery can stimulate the growth of hidden
cancer deposits left behind after the primary tumor has been
Exceptional Care
Inspires Decades
of Generosity
Pleased with the care that they have received
at Roosevelt Hospital, a grateful patient and
his wife have been donating money to the hospital
for three decades. The generous couple’s history of
giving now totals more than $110,000.
The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, were introduced to
Roosevelt when the husband had an operation here in 1974.
He became a patient of Thomas Dailey, MD, and then Lester
Gottesman, MD, upon Dr. Dailey’s retirement. Appreciative of the
care they were receiving, the couple started giving to the hospital
in 1981.
In 1992, they began donating to the Joan Scott Research Fund
at Dr. Dailey’s request. And for almost 20 years, their annual
gifts have supported the fund, now under the direction of Dr.
removed. The healing process stimulates new blood vessel formation
(angiogenesis) which is vital to tumor growth,” explained
Dr. Whelan. “However, it’s too dangerous to give standard chemotherapy
drugs at this time because these drugs kill all replicating
cells, including the healthy ones.”
“We want to find drugs that can be used during this unique
period. We believe such treatment will increase survival rate and
decrease tumor recurrence rate,” Dr. Whelan noted. “For cancer
patients, it will add another layer of care.”
This and other important cancer research is funded by grateful
patients, who have given $120,000 since Dr. Whelan started
the fund when he arrived at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt in 2009.
“I started to ask patients and their families for support, and a
number of them have stepped up and help to this day,” he said.
“I’m so thankful for their continued support.”
Added George Todd, MD, Chairman, Department of Surgery, St.
Luke’s and Roosevelt, “Without philanthropy, we wouldn’t be able
to accomplish much of the groundbreaking research being done at
our hospitals. I’m grateful to Dr. Whelan for starting this fund, and
to the many generous donors who support this vital work.”
Gottesman, Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery, St. Luke’s
and Roosevelt Hospitals. According to Dr. Gottesman, the Joan
Scott Research Fund was set up many years ago by Dr. Dailey.
Over the years, it has helped to fund resident and fellow education,
pay for conferences for the fellows, and support research projects
involving fecal incontinence, constipation, and other conditions.
“We’ve continued annual support in Dr. Dailey’s honor and in
honor of the work of Dr. Gottesman, who carried on the tradition
of good care,” the patient said. The annual gift is among the
biggest gifts they make to any charity.
“We always felt that we got such
wonderful care, and we approve of the
work they are doing.”
“Thanks to this couple’s generous ongoing gifts, St. Luke’s and
Roosevelt can continue to support important research and train
the physicians of the future,” Dr. Gottesman said.
Added the patient’s wife, “We’ve been so grateful for the care
from both Dr. Dailey and Dr. Gottesman. We always felt that we got
such wonderful care, and we approve of the work they are doing.”

As the weather turns warmer, many patients
and their families at Roosevelt Hospital will
be heading outside to enjoy a new garden and
play area. The garden, which opened last fall on
a terrace outside Winston 4G, was created under
the auspices of the Hyman-Newman Institute for
Neurology and Neurosurgery (INN), the hospital’s
multi-disciplinary center for adults and children
with neurological disorders.
Celebrating the history and spirit of the INN, this tranquil
outdoor space features flowering plants, seating areas, multicolored
tile flooring and a hopscotch course. A highlight is a
series of playful fence panels depicting the bridges of Manhattan.
These were originally part of the Jonathan Parker Abramson
Safe Harbor Roof Garden, designed by landscape artist Topher
Delaney, at the INN’s former location, Beth Israel Medical
St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals 21
Rooftop Garden
Blooms Again at the
Hyman-Newman INN “In those post-surgery days of healing,
the rooftop offers a place to be outside
to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.”
Center’s Singer Division. When the Singer Division closed in
2004, the INN moved its headquarters to Roosevelt Hospital.
Continuum Health Partners trustee Janet Green and INN Director
Alejandro Berenstein, MD, spearheaded efforts to recreate the
garden at Roosevelt.
“It was always a hope of mine that this wonderful oasis would
be reestablished,” Ms. Green said. The hospital’s creative team
made full use of the smaller space at Roosevelt, incorporating
all of the fence panels by using them to surround the perimeter
of the garden and to decorate a formerly nondescript wall.
Ms. Green added, “We have remarkable surgeons, state-of-
the-art equipment, great technology and wonderful care. In
those post-surgery days of healing, the rooftop offers a place
to be outside to enjoy fresh air and sunshine. It completes our
healing environment.”

22 St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals
Joan Sarnoff, Anna-Lena
Shahrivar and Kathleen Kearns
Associate Trustees on Broadway
On January 20, 2011, 160 people enjoyed an amazing theater
event—and raised money for the St. Luke’s and Roosevelt
Hospital’s Associate Trustees Small Grants Program at the same
time. Featuring the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, this
year’s Theater Benefit raised more than $90,000. Before the
show, guests met at the Intercontinental New York Times Square
for a cocktail reception and dinner. There, the Associate Trustees
presented Emergency Department Chairman Dan Wiener, MD,
with a check for $20,000—the final payment toward the group’s
pledge of $100,000 to the Roosevelt Hospital Emergency
Department Redesign. Associate Trustees Age Diedrick, Leila
Attiyeh and Marcia Aronowitz co-chaired the event.
Each year, the funds raised for the Small Grants Program subsidize
a variety of special initiatives that require funding beyond the
hospitals’ budget. Grants are awarded to support activities and
projects that reinforce the hospitals’ mission of compassionate
patient care, education of the next generation of physicians, innovative
research, and promotion of health in the community.
Alice M. Todd, Age B. Diedrick,
Leila F. Attiyeh, Terri H. Benvenisty
and Marcia Aronowitz
Dan Wiener, MD, and
Frank J. Cracolici
Serene and Nicholas
A. Romas, MD
Associate Trustees on

Broadway
Parents Establish Fund
to Train Next Generation
of Physicians
Louis and Anne Mazzella have been patients of
St. Luke’s and Roosevelt physician Luciano Del
Guzzo, MD, for more than 20 years. Grateful for the
care they’ve received, the Mazzellas recently gave
$25,000 to the hospital to establish the Carole Anne
Mazzella Fund in memory of their daughter.
In May 2011, the Carole Anne Mazzella Fund sponsored a grand
rounds on the latest developments in the treatment of brain
cancer, and Dr. Del Guzzo hopes to hold such educational programs
once a year in memory of Carole Anne, who died of brain
cancer as a teen.
“Mr. Mazzella has always been very generous in offering help and
asking me if there were any projects I considered important,” Dr.
Del Guzzo said. “I said that I thought educational programs were
very vital—and that we needed to stay abreast of new developments
in areas of medicine such as brain cancer.”
“We’re so grateful to the Mazzellas for offering to help and for
being so generous with this gift. I want to honor them for their
St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals 23
Arthur Sarnoff, Frank J. Cracolici,
Leila F. Attiyeh and Joan Sarnoff
generosity and to honor their daughter,” he said. In addition
to medical education, Dr. Del Guzzo hopes to use the fund for
patient care initiatives to improve the patient experience, particularly
in his specialty of cardiology, and for clinical research.
Mr. Mazzella credits Dr. Del Guzzo with saving his life, recalling
that many years ago, the physician tried out a new test that
caught Mr. Mazzella’s prostate cancer just in time.
“Dr. Del Guzzo is very deliberate and methodical, and he’s always
right on top of the latest tests. If he hadn’t been on top of them,
I wouldn’t be here right now, so I’m very grateful,” Mr. Mazzella
said. “Right now my health is good, and I credit that to my wonderful
physicians—and leading that list is Dr. Del Guzzo.”
“Right now my health is good, and I credit
that to my wonderful physicians—and
leading that list is Dr. Del Guzzo.”
“Advances in medicine have saved my life three times over the
years, and it is my hope that this gift will help further improve
the quality of our medicine,” Mr. Mazzella said.
The Mazzellas donate to a variety of causes, including underprivileged
students and disabled veterans, and Mr. Mazzella strongly
believes in the importance of giving to physicians and medical
institutions in order to advance the field of medicine.

24 St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals
“
Louis Brusco, Jr., MD
My family wanted to throw a 50th birthday party
for me, and I thought it would be better to have
them make a donation to the hospital, rather than
buy something I did not need. Then, I realized I could
extend it to all the guests,” Dr. Louis Brusco said. “I
started talking to the Development Department about
how to set up a fund to meet some of our needs in
the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. I think starting a fund
like this is a great idea that I hope other people will
do as well.”
Dr. Brusco’s family has been going to St. Luke’s for medical
care since the 1970s, and he himself had surgery there as a
teen. Since then, he’s been a premed volunteer, medical student
and resident—and now serves as Director of Critical Care
Anesthesiology, Co-Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit
and Medical Director of the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit.
What Do You Get A
Doctor For His Birthday?
The Brusco-Nanoia
Fund to Benefit Surgical
Intensive Care Unit
“Philanthropy is vital to our work, and I
think it’s wonderful that Dr. Brusco honored
his family and his long history with the
hospital by establishing this fund.”
Dr. Brusco has deepened his ties to the hospital even further
by generously establishing the Brusco-Nanoia Surgical Intensive
Care Unit Fund as a tribute to his family. With his own $10,000
pledge, Dr Brusco has so far received gifts for the fund totaling
$18,500 from friends, family and colleagues in honor of his
50th birthday.
“I have been here in some way, shape or form for a long
time,” Dr. Brusco said. “When my parents moved to Yonkers
in 1966, they lived a couple of houses away from a St. Luke’s
physician, and they would always go to him for physician
recommendations.”
Dr. Brusco decided to name the fund after his family because
of their special connection to the hospital. “It’s tough to
walk around the hospital without someone saying, ‘How’s your
mom?’ or asking about another family member,” he said.
“St. Luke’s is my home; it’s my family’s hospital.”
The fund will be used toward new equipment for the SICU, and
possible future purchases include ultrasound equipment and
noninvasive technology to detect heart function.
“Philanthropy is vital to our work, and I think it’s wonderful that
Dr. Brusco honored his family and his long history with the
hospital by establishing this fund,” said one of the fund’s many
donors, George Todd, MD, Chairman, Department of Surgery,
St. Luke’s and Roosevelt.

Frank J. Cracolici, Elie Hirschfeld
and Sara Schlesinger, MD
Organist Mikyoung Yun, Minister
Sandra Washington and Reverend
Florine S. Thompson
Domingo Nunez, MD, and
Bruce Polsky, MD
Interfaith Holiday Service
Richard Goldstein, Linda Goldstein
and Lawrence S. Huntington
Susan Fenton, Julia Del Guzzo
and Leila Attiyeh
Interfaith Holiday
Service Celebrates
and Honors Diversity
On December 9, 2010, St. Luke’s and
Roosevelt Hospitals' President, Frank
J. Cracolici, and the Board of Overseers
hosted the annual interfaith holiday
service and reception at the historic
Muhlenberg Chapel on the St. Luke’s
campus. Mr. Cracolici welcomed guests
to the service, which included songs,
prayers and readings organized by the
hospitals’ Director of Pastoral Care,
Reverend Florine S. Thompson.

Charitable Trust Funds
Gastroenterology
Training Since 1973
For more than 15 years, Annesta Gardner was
a patient of Albert A. Attia, MD. Ms. Gardner
lived across the street from Roosevelt Hospital, and
Dr. Attia would often make house calls.
“We would spend an hour or so chatting. She knew everything
about my family—we would talk about what they were doing and
she was interested in everything,” Dr. Attia recalled. “She had a
deep interest in science, and she even started sending scientific
magazines to my children.”
It was during one such visit that Dr. Attia told Ms. Gardner about
his plans to create a gastroenterology service at Roosevelt,
where he served as Chief of Gastroenterology from 1967 to
1991. Unfortunately, there were no funds available to support
GI trainees.
“She immediately said, ‘I’d love to do something creative like
that to help others.’ She was a very special person,” Dr. Attia
said, adding that despite her frailty, Ms. Gardner took the bus
every day to her job as an editor at McGraw Hill.
Ms. Gardner decided to leave all her funds to the GI service at
Roosevelt, in the form of a trust that would make annual gifts to
the hospital. Since the first gift in 1973, the gifts from the trust
have totaled more than $250,000, and the income generated
from the invested funds allowed Dr. Attia to develop a training
program in gastroenterology.
“This really was how the GI service started. Today, our former
trainees are all over the country, and a good number of them
stayed at Roosevelt, where they are now the teachers,” Dr.
Attia said.
Donald P. Kotler, MD, Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology
and Liver Disease at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals, noted
that gifts such as Ms. Gardner’s play a huge role in helping to
train the physicians of the future.
“Philanthropy is vital because the amount of money that’s available
for training is shrinking, even in the face of a growing need
to train more doctors and train them better,” Dr. Kotler said.
“In the absence of the Gardner funds, there wouldn’t have been
a GI training program at Roosevelt, and we’re grateful for Ms.
Gardner’s extraordinary generosity.”