TODAY news - Oct 10, 2002 - Children's Hospital news

Thursday, October 10, 2002 TODAY

Loma Linda University Children's Hospital news

Big Hearts for Little Hearts Desert Guild to host lecture on November 14

Edith Eva Eger, PhD

Internationally known clinical psychologist and lecturer Edith Eva Eger, PhD, will speak at the first event sponsored by the Big Hearts for Little Hearts Desert Guild on Thursday, November 14, 2002, at 2:30 p.m. at the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower, 39000 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage. Dr. Eger will speak on "Turning Broken Bones to Dancing." Admission to the event is $20.

A native of Hungary, Dr. Eger was barely 16 years old in 1944 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Her parents lost their lives there. She and her sister survived.

"For years, I could never understand why I had survived while others didn't," Dr. Eger says. "I had a lot of guilt. And it drove me, I think, to be a high achiever."

Young Edith, then only 17, was found unconscious by an American soldier when Auschwitz was liberated in 1945.

When she reached Czechoslovakia, Dr. Eger, as a result of the conditions at Auschwitz, was hospitalized. In the hospital she met the man who was to become her husband, who was recovering from tuberculosis.

In 1949, Dr. Eger and her husband moved to the United States where she began her higher education. She received her degree in psychology from the University of Texas, El Paso, in 1969, and did her doctoral internship at William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, Texas.

Dr. Eger has a clinical practice in La Jolla and holds a faculty appointment at the University of California, San Diego. She travels several times a month for speaking engagements throughout the United States and abroad.

She is a prolific author and a member of numerous professional associations. She has been honored by the California State Senate with the 1992 Humanitarian Award and by the Southland Club for Business and Professional Women as a "woman who promotes peace, health, and education throughout the world."

"I have no time for hate," Dr. Eger says. "If I still hated today, I would still be in prison. If I hated, they would still be in charge, not me."

Proceeds from the lecture will benefit the pediatric intensive care unit at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

Tickets may be purchased at the Loma Linda University Children's Hospital Foundation office, suite 1816, or by calling (909) 558-8008.

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Kiwanis Club donates dolls to LLUCH

Kiwanis Club member Karen Pogue, board director for Kiwanis, helps Sophia Yariez decorate her doll, one of 200 donated by the Loma Linda Valley Kiwanis Club to Loma Linda University Children¡s Hospital.

The Loma Linda Valley Kiwanis Club donated 200 Kiwanis hospital dolls to Loma Linda University Children's Hospital on Tuesday, September 17. The dolls, made of beige cotton material with pillow stuffing, stand 15 inches high and are featureless. The goal of the program is to provide a diversion for children undergoing painful procedures while giving them an outlet to express themselves.

Sophia Yariez, who celebrated her fourth birthday on September 29, received the first doll in the oncology/hematology unit's playroom. Children are encouraged to draw faces on their dolls, showing how they feel and where they hurt. Once the child has identified with the doll, nurses and doctors can demonstrate procedures on it to help the child understand what will happen to him or her. Each doll is a gift the child keeps when leaving the hospital.

The Key Clubs of Kiwanis International, made up of high school volunteers, sew the dolls, provided as a service to the hospital and community. The donation is part of the pediatric trauma prevention program established by the Kiwanis California-Nevada-Hawaii Foundation in 1992.

Dinah Evans, MS, CCLS, and the staff of LLUCH child life services began distributing the dolls the same day as they were received.

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Thursday, October 10, 2002 TODAY