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If I Get to Five
A Review
By Emily Gorovsky
. The title refers to the goals that one of Dr. Epstein's early patients, a 4-year-old girl named Naomi, set for herself as she battled a vicious brain tumor. If Naomi could get through all the surgeries and the pain, she knew she could learn to ride a bike, jump rope backward and tie her shoes in a double-knot when she turned 5. Amazingly, Naomi did make it to 5 and is living happily today at the age of 30. She also has been inspirational in helping Dr. Epstein "raise the bar another notch for myself every day," he writes. "I find myself chanting my own 'If I get to' mantras to coax myself through the next long session of rehab."
Naomi's is just one of several heartwarming stories that Dr. Epstein smoothly weaves into his book. While inspiration, joy and knowledge can be drawn from each child's story, there are not always happy endings, and Dr. Epstein does not shy away from showing the painful reality of children's suffering or of acknowledging his own personal shortcomings.
Chris was a teenage patient of Dr. Epstein's who did not make it. Even though he had courageously come to terms with his tumor and with death, Chris wanted most to have his hand held, to love and to be loved in return. After reading a poem Chris wrote shortly before his death that touched upon these needs, Dr. Epstein realized he had not made comforting his young patients a top priority and vowed to never again "lose sight of what was most human in my patients – their need for comfort."
Chris' story and the stories of Dr. Epstein's many other young patients inspired him to create a place where children would always have someone to hold their hand, where parents' need to comfort their children would not be restricted by visiting hours and where hope and joy would be more pervasive than worry and pain. That place is the Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery (INN) at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City, which opened its doors in 1996.
The INN offers its child patients clowns, music therapy and even IV drip poles decorated as palm trees. Parents can visit whenever they wish, stay comfortably overnight in beds next to their children's and wash their clothes on site so they do not have to leave their child's side for even a moment. "It's a wonderful place," says Dr. Epstein, who is proud to be the founding director of this haven for children that serves multiple needs while saving multiple lives.
What makes Dr. Epstein different from other doctors and the INN different from other medical facilities is clear; what makes If I Get to Five