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April 29, 1994 - Image 47

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1994-04-29

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Y VT11 V

camp docs often serve as coun-
selors, too.
"Doctors have to help the pa-
tients or families deal with their
problems. The same is true at
camp," he said. "Feeling crummy
with a bunch of kids in a bunk
may not seem like a medical
emergency to doctors who are ac-
customed to dealing with brain
tumors or heart attacks.
"But for a child who is away at
camp without his or her parents,
and who doesn't feel well, it's a
serious problem. We have to re-
member that," he says.
Physicians at camp receive help
from nurses who, among a myri-
ad of other duties, organize shelves
of pills children bring to camp.
Several doctors say the amount of
medication young children take is
appalling. It often is unnecessary,
even dangerous, they say.
On the other hand, the over-
whelming number of pills, lotions
and elixirs that clinics administer
each day enables campers with se-
rious health problems — like asth-
ma, growth disorders and diabetes
— to live away from home.

Children generally show up
like clockwork at the clinic to
swallow their pills and give
themselves the necessary injec-
tions. "They do it with such dis-
cipline," Dr. Perov says. "I was
just astonished to see how pro-
fessional they are."
Many doctors attend camp
with their children. The Auster
family of Farmington Hills has
been going to Camp Tanuga to-
gether for five years.
It all started when Dr. Barry
Auster, a dermatologist with an
office in Southfield, traveled up
north on a golfing trip. En route,
he received a call from a friend at
Camp Tanuga who asked him to
make a short stop in Kalkaska to
check out a camper's rash.
"Twenty-five kids later, I was
still there," Dr. Auster says. "I de-
cided it would be a good summer
activity."
These days, Dr. Auster and his
wife, Marcia, stay in staff hous-
ing that was added onto the clin-
ic. Their children
Erica, 16, Elana, 12, and
Rachel, 9, participate in activities

Most camp
maladies are
minor ones.

with other campers during regu-
lar sessions.
Having a dad who's also camp
doc isn't that bad, especially dur-
ing rainy spells when camper
morale tends to droop.
`They bring lots of food," Elana
says.
"We sneak them Doritos," Dr.
Auster admits. ❑

Neveh Rachel

Israel is home to a special day-care center for children with cancer.

NAOMI GROSSMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Ehrentals decided their knowledge
and experience in coping with their
son's illness could help other par-
ents in a similar situation.
"People need support, they
need encouragement and they
need help," explained Ms.
Ehrental. "It's a lonely, scary
thing to go through. Cancer is
a long and horrible disease. At
first, parents are unable to grasp
the fact that their child has can-
cer. They don't know what to do."
With donations from friends
and money from fund-raising ac-
tivities, the Ehrentals founded
Zichron Menachem (Hebrew for
"In Memory of Menachem").
They began a summer camp for
young cancer sufferers and or-
ganized hospital visits, home vis-
its and birthday parties to cheer
he children playing at the dren are recuperating from, or up children and relieve their par-
Neveh Rachel Day-Care have, some form of cancer.
ents. They provided wigs for chil-
Center certainly don't
Neveh Rachel, Israel's first dren undergoing chemotherapy
seem sick. They look like day-care center for children and and computers for house-bound
any children happily intent on teen-agers with cancer, opened children. They took children on
wiping out the bad guys in their in November 1993 in Jerusalem. trips around the country and
computer games or playing The center's story actually be- sponsored a hotline on pediatric
house or trying to figure out gan about 17 years ago, when cancer. The Ehrentals them-
where the next piece of their puz- Miri and Chaim Ehrental's first- selves often could be found in
zle goes. But a closer look reveals born son, Menachem, was diag- hospital wards, offering support
thinning hair, weak legs and nosed with leukemia at age 1. and encouragement to parents,
pale complexions. While mo- Menachem fought the disease taking home laundry or helping
mentarily unsettling to an out- for 14 years, until eventually suc- an out-of-town parent find a
sider, few at Neveh Rachel pay cumbing in 1990.
room for the night.
much attention, for all the chil-
After their son's death, • the
The idea for a day-care center

T

was born in mid-1993, when some-
one familiar with the Ehrentals'
work called Miri Ehrental. The
woman was frustrated with an
employee's chronic absenteeism
due to her son's sarcoma (a type of
malignant tumor).
"I explained that the woman
had no choice, that her son need-
ed her. Then suddenly I had a vi-
sion. I would start a day-care
center where kids could come
while their parents went to
work."

"It was a dream,
but I knew I had
to make it work."

— Miri Ehrentol

A short time later, and quite
coincidentally, the Ehrentals
were contacted by Chaim and
Lynn Gettenberg who were vis-
iting from New York. They had
recently lost their 4-year-old
daughter, Rachel, to a brain tu-
mor and wanted to donate mon-
ey for a project in her name. Miri
outlined her idea and within five
weeks, Neveh Rachel was born.
Deliberately designed with
fun in mind, one corner of Neveh
Rachel is filled with musical in-

struments; another is for hold-
ing live concerts. Its rooms are
filled with toys. A resting room,
with fish painted on its walls,
houses a huge aquarium. The
computer room is outfitted with
six terminals and has colorful
butterflies painted on all avail-
able wall space.
Mornings at Neveh Rachel are
devoted to children undergoing
treatment, who are unable to go
to school. In the afternoons, chil-
dren who have completed treat-
ment come to play or catch up on
schoolwork missed while they
were in the hospital.
As pop music blares from the
stereo 12-year-old Oren, who is
recovering from a brain tumor,
works at a computer. Eight-year-
old Esther, also recovering from
a brain tumor, comes in straight
from school. And 5-year-old Nir,
weakened from recent treat-
ments, crawls into the toy room
to play.
This is a place where they can
feel comfortable and accepted. No
one asks why their hair looks fun-
ny or why they are so thin. They
are not treated with kid gloves or
given pitiful looks. They are just
kids who happen to be sick. Ms.
Ehrental says: "Cancer is a sad
story. We try to put a little light
back into their lives." ❑

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