Families Eager For Suffolk County's First Children's Hospital
STONY BROOK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – In Stony Brook, bulldozers rumble up and down the slopes of a huge pit that will one day house the 10-story, 120-bed Stony Brook Children's Hospital. The new medical facility will be able to treat critically ill kids facing long hospital stays.
"It's going to be state-of-the-art in what it provides to families and for children we'll have classrooms. It's going to be wireless so they can access the materials they need to continue their education," Dr. Samuel Stanley said, president of Stony Brook University.
As TV 10/55's Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose reported, the $240 million hospital is being designed with critically ill children, like Fariba Palas' son, in mind.
Palas has spent the last three years shuttling her now 7-year-old son Jesse to far off clinics for specialized cancer treatment. Palas is mostly thrilled about the planned larger rooms.
"They need to make the rooms and floors more comfortable for a kid because sometimes they got to stay a week, sometimes a month," she said.
In June, 18-year-old George Sprague was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes and he's been receiving chemotherapy all summer.
"I found out a couple of days before my prom and my high school graduation," he said.
"He's got a great attitude, a great frame of mind and we're going to beat this," Rachel Sprague said.
The Sprague family, is most relieved they won't have to go out-of-state to get the treatment the teen needs since the hospital plans to hire many leading specialists.
"It's going to be more advancement, medical and treatment-wise for all these kids," Sprague said.
It's a hope these families are depending on, but will have to wait a while longer to see.
If construction stays on track, the Stony Brook Children's Hospital is set to open in 2016.
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