Stepping Stones Home
Max's Story
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.
Additional Stories
John's Brave Journey Back from Brain Injury
Two days after the start of third grade, John was at home playing video games with his dad. He suddenly screamed, “I can’t see!” and then began vomiting and went unconscious. The eight-year-old was rushed to an emergency room in Staten Island where a CT scan showed bleeding in his brain from a...
Brandon is an 11-year-old who lets nothing slow him down - not even a heart transplant. He was born with multiple congenital heart defects, including heterotaxy, a rare condition which is characterized by septal defects and valve disorders, and an inability to productively return blood from the...
Three-year-old Milana has attended Blythedale's Specialized Feeding outpatient program for more than a year now. As a medically complex child, finding all the therapies Milana required - in one location - was difficult for her mom, Deanna. Milana was born with Pierre Robin Sequence, a rare...
