The Robert Stone Day Hospital

Meet Max, an aspiring content creator who - at age 12 - is taking on the world while recovering from congenital heart disease and an hypoxic brain injury. Max attends the Robert Stone Day Hospital at Blythedale Children’s Hospital which offers a specialized program for children who are able to live at home, but still require a level of medical and/or rehabilitative care that cannot be met by their school or a community outpatient program. Children like Max receive daily medical supervision and nursing care, comprehensive rehabilitation services (physical, occupational, speech and/or feeding therapy), and education through the Mt. Pleasant Blythedale Union Free School District (UFSD). Blythedale is the only Hospital in the country with its own on-site public school district, specifically chartered to meet the needs of children with medical complexities. More than 150 children, from preschool through 12th grade, attend Blythedale's Day Hospital program, which provides a smooth transition back to the community and their home school district. This highly unique medical and educational program is unmatched in size and scope anywhere in the country.

Thirteen-year-old Mathew was well-known as a baseball prodigy in the Little League community. A versatile player, the talented teen hit more than 70 home runs in one year alone. The road that led him to Blythedale is heart-breaking, but his tenacity and courage in the face of adversity has led to an extraordinary recovery.

Mathew suffered life-threatening injuries when a quick-moving fire swept through his family's home on New Year's Day. While attempting to save his younger brother's life, Mathew sustained inhalation injuries and third-degree burns to more than 65% of his body. Following six weeks of intensive care, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and multiple skin graft surgeries at the Burn Center at NYP Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Mathew's condition had stabilized enough for him to be transported to Blythedale for comprehensive burn and wound care and intensive rehabilitation.

The pencils were sharpened, the backpacks were filled and the classrooms were spotless. It was the first day of school for students at Mt. Pleasant Blythedale Union Free School District (UFSD) on Tuesday, September 5th. These students, in pre-K through 12th grade, are not only coming to learn but to also receive intensive therapies and comprehensive medical services as inpatients or Day Hospital patients at Blythedale Children’s Hospital.