Stories of My Time at Shriners Hospital Springfield

Posting Memories on Instagram

I have recently been posting memories of my childhood on Instagram.  A lot of those memories are from the many days, months, and yes, years of my life that I spent as a patient at Shriners Hospital in Springfield Massachusetts. The word hospital conjures up thoughts of pain and suffering but for me they are fond memories of friends I made and experiences I had.

The Shriners Hospital Mission

In case you aren’t familiar with Shriners they have a mission to:

• Provide the highest quality care to children with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn injuries and other special healthcare needs within a compassionate, family-centered and collaborative care environment.
• Provide for the education of physicians and other healthcare professionals.
• Conduct research to discover new knowledge that improves the quality of care and quality of life of children and families.

This mission is carried out without regard to race, color, creed, sex or sect, disability, national origin, or ability of a patient or family to pay.

That last part ability of a patient or family to pay. This means that everything is free.  I once had a stay there of 3 months.  I was told had my parents had to pay it would have cost nearly 3 million dollars. Obviously that would have ruined them financially. Without the help of this amazing organization I may not be here today as well as thousands of other kids who needed their help.  They are running a fundraiser until December 1st you can double your impact by donating here.

The Memories

I want to introduce you to some of the friends I made along the way.

Rasheen

Rasheen was a really cool kid.  He was at Shriners due to a leg issue that was being corrected with an  Ilizarov apparatus.  The Ilizarov apparatus is a type of external fixation used in orthopedic surgery to lengthen or reshape limb bones; as a limb-sparing technique to treat complex and/or open bone fractures; and in cases of infected nonunions of bones that are not amenable with other techniques. It is named after the orthopedic surgeon Gavriil Abramovich Ilizarov from the Soviet Union, who pioneered the technique.

As you can see in the picture he was a really happy kid. After witnessing lots of kids with an Ilizarov, I can tell you it is not a pleasant experience. There is a great deal of pain involved. Despite that he was always smiling and happy.

For some reason he started calling me Eli. I am not sure if he just couldn’t pronounce my name or if he just liked Eli better.  I never told him the difference when he would say “Eli my man chill out!”  I also have no idea why he said that to me.  I must have been crying over something that was happening at the time.  Yes even though you always see me smiling there were definitely times when I cried. Mostly when I was getting yet another needle plunged into me or after surgery when I was in excruciating pain.

Demetrius Lazarou

Demetrius was about 3 years old and he had the entire hospital wrapped around his little finger.  He was incredibly cute when he would look at you and tip his head, smile, and say sorry.  He was usually saying sorry because he had bitten you.  Yes he loved to bite. So much so in fact that we started calling him the little pitbull.  Also I know not all pitbulls bite it was just a nickname.

He loved to grab nurses fingers when they were changing him or helping him in some way. He would grab on and bite as fast as a rattlesnake. Which Brings me to another story. My dad was doing something with him one day and all of a sudden Demetrius grabbed my dad on both sides of the face by his beard. In a split second he had bitten my dad right on the nose leaving behind two puncture wounds. It looked just like a snake bite.

He also loved going for walks up and down the halls of the hospital. He knew how to say go for a walk in three languages Paseo in Spanish, Pao volta in Greek and of course go for a walk in English. I always thought he was saying belibido for the Greek word until I just looked it up. He would say them all in one breath in an effort to make sure he was using at least one language that someone would understand. It was the cutest thing ever. No one ever denied him his walk.

Elijah Parker

Elijah was actually from right in Springfield. He was also a cute one at 5 years old. One of the funniest memories I have of him is when a bunch of Looney Tunes characters came to visit during a barbecue. He rolled up to Foghorn Leghorn and looked up. He shouted at the top of his lungs, “What doin’ bird!”. Everyone cracked up. He followed that bird the rest of the day.

Another memory I have of Elijah is his love of Oreo cookies. He would stand on his head against the side of his bed for one. I once saved up 4 packages and that kid stood on his head for a very long time. He truly loved them.

Unfortunately while posting on Instagram I decided to Google Elijah and found his obituary. He passed away in August of this year. I wish I had looked sooner and maybe reached out. Nevertheless I am grateful for those memories. If you would like to read more about him you can find that obituary here.

I love the fact that the picture with the obituary shows he never lost that smile.

Felipe Hernandez

Felipe is from Dominican Republic.  He was mostly a serious kid.  I am not sure why he was at the hospital but I do remember he had trouble bending his legs when he walked. So he walked quite stiff.  This detail comes in handy for this story.

One day he was talking to my dad about another kid from the Dominican Republic, Luis.  Luis was a very energetic kid and was a bit of an annoyance for Felipe.  I think Luis knew it which made him do it even more. Well while talking to my dad the day before they were both supposed to fly home, Felipe made a really funny statement that was totally out of character. He said “You know Gary that Luis if he bother me on the plane I gonna kick his ass!” Of course there is no way on earth that was going to happen but just the thought of it now makes me laugh.

Maria

Maria was special to my family. She was about 3 years old and from Cyprus. She had bowed legs but was also Deaf. Her dad looked a bit like my dad mostly because they both had beards. Her dad was unable to visit because he had a heart problem. He was actually waiting for a transplant. Unfortunately that is the case for a lot of the kids at the hospital. They are so far away from home that they don’t get a lot of visitors.

Anyway Maria adopted my dad as her own. She would protect him at any cost.

One day they were both sitting in the playroom. Maria mind you was back to us. As I said before she was Deaf. She had hearing aids but hated them. I rolled up beside my dad and like a flash she spun around and started scratching my knees and yelling no. She pushed me back away from him and wouldn’t let me near him. It became a game after that to see how close I could get without getting caught. I never did it.

I can still picture her playing. Yet another happy kid in a bad situation. She would sing to herself and just play with the toys unless I tried to get close to dad.

My dad and her dad did end up meeting finally and they became pen pals.

Paniyotas

Paniyotas became known as the wild child. Also I have no idea if I am spelling his name correctly.

As you can see in the picture he was in a full upper body cast other than his right arm. I am not sure why this was the case.

In those days the younger kids would sleep in a crib that had a top and bottom to it. Actually if you look in the background you can see one. You could call it a cage. It opened on the side sliding the 2 halves up and down. When closed it was like a big box. Paniyotas had a real knack for climbing with his one good arm and his legs. If you were wondering where he was you just had to listen for metal rattling and a kid yelling. He would somehow climb to the top of the crib and get on top and shake it violently while screaming. I think he may have had trouble communicating which caused him to act out but I am not sure about that.

Ewa

This is Ewa and my dad. Her name is pronounced Eva. She was from Poland and came from a very poor family.  It was Christmas time when I met her.  I will be posting later about Christmas at Shriners but let me tell you it is pretty epic. It basically lasts a whole week with presents and events every day.

So as I said Ewa was quite poor and became quite overwhelmed with the festivities. When I say poor, I mean she lived in a 2 room shell of a house with dirt floors and no electricity.

Santa came to visit one day and hand out presents. This is pretty much a daily thing during Christmas. Ewa got a doll. After a bit she walked back up to Santa and simply said “Too much!” while handing the doll back to him. It took some convincing to reassure it was OK to take the doll.

There were some extraordinary things about Ewa. She was I believe 12 years old or so. At Shriners they actually have an on staff teacher to help kids with their studies so they don’t get behind. Well Ewa finished all the math books they had all the way up through college level, including calculus and other high level math. She was incredibly smart. She also had an amazing ability to hand copy a picture with pencil. She once took a picture of a horse in a field and drew it on a separate piece of paper. The only difference was the fact it was in pencil and not color. I hope she was able to go on to do great things with her abilities and I would love to find out somehow.

I hope you really enjoyed these small snippets into my memories of basically growing up at Shriners Hospital. I know I really enjoyed looking back and remembering.  Stay tuned! I will be writing about more memories like the time I had to spend 3 months in the hospital after 2 back surgeries lasting 14 hours.