Radiothon Helps Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital Assist Families
Patsy and Raj Bobde of Ossining had struggled for years to have a child, but when their daughter Yashwini arrived nine months ago, she was months earlier than expected and weighed just a pound.
“I had just scheduled my baby shower,” said Patsy, a pediatrician. “The next thing I know, within five days of that call, everything happened. All hell broke loose. It was very scary. The night it happened, I felt like everything was going to fall apart after trying for years to have a baby.”
The couple was one of several families interviewed Thursday morning as part of 100.7 WHUD’s 11th Annual Children’s Miracle Network by morning show hosts Kacey Morabito Grean and Mike Bennett in the Valhalla hospital’s lobby. The radiothon began early Wednesday morning, with several on-air staffers taking part both at the hospital and in the studio.
Raj, also a doctor, told listeners he and his wife faced life-and-death decisions.
“We knew that if we made one wrong decision, she would be no more,” he said.
Patsy Bobde said her daughter is now 14 pounds and healthy, and no one would know she was a premature baby. Bobde has admitted patients to Maria Fareri and is an even bigger supporter after her own ordeal.
“There’s no place like this hospital, from the security guards to the people who change the garbage and the janitors, they make you feel like part of the family here,” she said. “Maria Fareri is more than a hospital; it was my second home for four months and there was never a day I didn’t feel supported in this place.”
Children’s medical facilities are a valuable resource that are getting much harder to find, she added.
“Most hospitals, because of the economy and the way medicine is going in this country, they are closing down a lot of the pediatric floors in the community hospitals,” Bobde said. “So a place like this that just cares for children is an amazing thing. I do think it makes a difference in the quality of care in terms of the outcome of a child that comes to a hospital like this.”
Raj Bobde said he hoped to see the hospital continue to expand its occupancy to allow more families to get the care they need.
“We saw quite a few babies who were not that lucky and had to be transported to somewhere else because the bed capacity was full,” he said.
WHUD, a PAMAL broadcasting station, has been partnering with the hospital before it was completed, Grean said.
“We once did a fundraiser every year on air, like a toy drive,” she said. “And before the hospital was built, Mike was involved with a lot of the pre-building fundraising to raise the $25 million in order to just break ground here.”
Grean said the station staff saw the annual event as a cornerstone of their broadcast year.
“The children’s hospital is all about the families of Westchester and the Hudson Valley, and WHUD is all about the families of Westchester and the Hudson Valley, so our worlds blend perfectly,” she said.
Grean said that many of the families interviewed on air get very emotional, as the Bodes did, when discussing their children. She said it was often contagious.
“We just cry the whole morning,” Grean said. “Sometimes I cry on the way here and on the way home.”
Bennett and Morabito are scheduled to announce the final tally of the radiothon Friday at around 10 a.m. To make a contribution, call 1-800-499-5437 during the event or online at www.WHUD.com.
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