Pappas Hospital is old and costly. But before closing it, the state needs to prove care won't suffer.
By late January, he could dress himself, brush his teeth, sit up, and touch his toes, Rivera said. And he's happy. He attends school at the hospital, made friends, and took a trip to Target. The young man's goal is horseback riding and every day, using his wheelchair, he visits the horses on the hospital campus. He's living there indefinitely, as his parents can't bring him home until they find a handicapped accessible apartment with space for their family.
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Rivera, who lives in Worcester, worries his son will emotionally shut down again if Pappas closes and patients are sent to Western Massachusetts Hospital in Westfield, as Healey has proposed. 'He's not going to be able to move out of bed,' Rivera said.
The student population that Pappas serves would be expensive to treat and educate anywhere. The state subsidizes the hospital with $31 million a year. But Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh says the proposed closure isn't about budget, but quality of care. After decades of disinvestment, its buildings are outdated, and a 358-page facilities study from 2023 found structural issues, problems with ventilation and electrical systems, inadequate room sizes, poor Wi-Fi, and other issues. Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said one major problem is the hospital can't serve children on ventilators because of a lack of electrical capacity or medical gases and small rooms.
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'The clinical needs of kids who need to be at a place like Pappas have changed, and the physical plant, the capabilities of those buildings, weren't up to modern medicine,' Walsh told the editorial board.
Keeping the hospital open would undoubtedly require major facilities investments. But staff members, parents, and former patients are raising important concerns about whether Healey's proposal would accommodate children's medical needs at the cost of eliminating the enormous range of educational, recreational, and therapeutic services now offered there.
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The state plan would renovate a Western Massachusetts Hospital wing to create a 25-bed pediatric unit with assistive equipment and activity and play areas. State officials would work with families to find appropriate settings for other Pappas patients, including some who are turning 22 and aging out.
The biggest question is how comparable the services would be. Officials from several unions representing workers, who oppose the closure, and families worry that children wouldn't be allowed to leave on weekends, wouldn't have access to full-time school, and would lose field trips, recreational opportunities, and freedom of outdoor movement.
'They're not going to have a prom at Western Mass Hospital,' said Nancy Silva, who retired from Pappas after 37 years and is a union leader at AFSCME. 'Instead of being alongside their peers, they're going to be within a geriatric population.'
Goldstein acknowledged some services will be lost, but said the state is working on giving patients access to farmland on the Western Massachusetts campus so they can grow vegetables, is discussing schooling options with education officials, and will let them leave on weekends. If the state could commit to those programs now, it might assuage the concerns of some parents.
Before proceeding with a closure that will move patients further from their families — who today are predominantly in eastern Massachusetts — and eliminate the recreational and social activities on the Pappas campus, state officials should also fully consider other solutions.
There's no question renovating Pappas would take money — hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Goldstein. But, according to the facilities report, if the state can upgrade patient bedroom areas, it could house 74 students, increasing the insurance reimbursements that come in. There might be other ways to serve new populations and increase revenue — reviving a former summer camp for children with disabilities, expanding a new respite program that takes children for short-term stays, or opening the facility to patients with different types of diseases or care needs than are currently served there. While many students remain there for years, school officials at one point considered accepting students short-term to help them learn specific skills. Targeted, gradual investments could presumably keep core buildings usable or open new spaces.
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There may also be options for raising money. The facilities report says the hospital has 110 acres of undeveloped land. It suggests potential uses like administrative housing, outpatient services for adults who have aged out of Pappas, or a solar panel farm. The latter two options could generate revenue. The state could also sell unused land to private developers and use that money to renovate the hospital, or develop a public-private partnership involving development and renovations. Silva said for about 20 years, the school would fund-raise to take each year's graduating class to Disney World. Perhaps philanthropy could cover recreational 'extras.'
Ideally, the state would have invested in Pappas for decades and not let the facilities deteriorate. Today, state officials are right in seeking to provide care in facilities that meet modern medical standards. At the same time, Pappas has provided a unique environment for severely disabled children that has cultivated joy and independence. If ultimately there is no way to keep Pappas open, state officials must ensure that what it does right isn't lost in the transition.
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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Two Chicago-area women desperately search for a living kidney donor: ‘I'm going kicking and screaming'
Katie Pappas had kept a secret for weeks from her students at northwest suburban Timber Trails Elementary. The 40-year-old health teacher's kidney was failing, and she spent around eight to 11 hours every night tethered to a dialysis machine. Eventually, the time came to confide in her students, and she explained that their usually bubbly, upbeat teacher was struggling. Her kindergarteners at the Hoffman Estates school didn't understand kidney disease, but they did understand pollution, Pappas said. 'So Miss Pappas' kidney is not cleaning the pollution in her blood, that's why I'm tired all the time. We understand that,' Pappas said. 'Fourth grade and up, they know the body systems.' Pappas, described by her family and former students as a 'giver,' 'role model' and 'inspiration,' is one of about 3,500 Illinoisans waiting for a kidney transplant in a state where, according to the American Kidney Fund, the average wait time is five to seven years. But Pappas, along with another Chicago mother of four that the Tribune spoke with, may not have that long to wait. They are desperately searching and hoping for their best option, a living donor. 'God, the universe, whatever, has already decided whether I'm getting a kidney or not, and if this is how I'm going out, I am going to shout it from the rooftops. I'm going kicking and screaming,' Pappas said. 'Maybe that's another reason I'm still here, is because I will talk about this to whoever will listen, to bring awareness to the situation,' Pappas continued. 'It's not (just) me. There's so many people and everybody is worth a chance to live their lives with a new kidney.' Experts have been sounding the alarm for years on the severe shortage of kidneys available to transplant, with about 90,000 patients across the country waiting for one. 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Her best chance at survival, Pappas recalled her doctors telling her, is getting a kidney from a living donor. Some doctors have recommended she stop teaching while spending hours on dialysis every night, a treatment that's 'very hard on (her) body,' but Pappas knows she'd be depressed staying home all the time. Dialysis filters waste and excess fluid from the blood. 'Two nights ago, I had 29 alarms go off,' Pappas recounted. 'How do you sleep? You don't. You get up the next morning and crawl to Starbucks … but the second the buses come up (at school), it's like a switch in my brain.' At school, Pappas teaches about five classes a day, and even adopted uplifting affirmations into her curriculum. At the beginning and end of class, students recite, 'I'm stronger than I think, I'm braver than I see, I'm stronger than I feel and I can do hard things.' This spring, she helped out with the school's production of 'The Lion King' before coming home and hooking up to the dialysis machine around 6 p.m. 'I have no regular life. There's no regular life anymore,' she said. 'I don't really have time to, like, go shopping or do laundry.' Dana Nikoloulis, Pappas' aunt, is just one of her family members who've stepped up to try to find Pappas a kidney, from helping organize fundraisers to running marketing campaigns. Nikoloulis said it's difficult to watch someone she loves, who enjoys ballet and watching the Rockettes as much as she does, struggle so much. 'I know that there's so much more she has to give,' Nikoloulis said. 'She's meant to have this transplant and live a long, fruitful life and inspire others.' Anyone interested in donating a kidney to Pappas can fill out a kidney donor questionnaire through Northwestern Medicine and enter her name when asked. 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She decided to get a kidney biopsy in 2016 because her brothers had kidney disease, and learned that she had lost 60% of her kidney function. She was also diagnosed with the rare MUC1 kidney disease, an inherited condition that causes her kidneys to shrivel up. Within about four years, or what felt like 'a blink of an eye,' she had to go on dialysis. She spends her free time supporting other kidney patients through various organizations, and is known as a 'very special person' and 'very appreciative' by one advocate. 'Everything I had planned for my future, the trips I wanted to take my daughter on, everything stopped. Everything stopped,' Hernandez said. 'Right now I'm a prisoner of my own body.' Hernandez has waited on the transplant for six years, but said her doctor believes a living donor is likely the best option because she has rare antibodies. Potential donors for Hernandez can call UI Health Chicago's transplant coordinator Anita Pakrasi at 312-355-9820. Sometimes Hernandez feels like breaking down and stopping dialysis, especially after she started having 'nightmare' allergic reactions to the treatment. Her face turns red and hives cover her body. But her mom and kids convinced her to keep fighting and holding out hope that her kidney is coming soon. 'My doctor says there's a needle in a haystack and your donor is here in the U.S.,' she said. 'Somewhere.'
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Polyrizon's hydrogel demonstrated consistent, concentrated delivery to the upper nasal segments while maintaining favorable handling characteristics. These findings support the continued preclinical development of the T&T platform for CNS-targeted applications. Polyrizon intends to further validate these results in animal models and initiate safety studies as part of its translational roadmap for the T&T technology. About Polyrizon Polyrizon is a development stage biotech company specializing in the development of innovative medical device hydrogels delivered in the form of nasal sprays, which form a thin hydrogel-based shield containment barrier in the nasal cavity that can provide a barrier against viruses and allergens from contacting the nasal epithelial tissue. 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Words such as 'expects,' 'anticipates,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'seeks,' 'estimates' and similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For example, the Company is using forward-looking statements when it discusses its belief that its Trap and Target™ (T&T) platform has the potential to opens a strategic path forward for leveraging its intranasal platform in the development of therapies for acute neurological and psychiatric conditions, the continued preclinical development of the T&T platform for CNS-targeted applications and its intention to further validate these results in animal models and initiate safety studies as part of its translational roadmap for the T&T technology. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are based upon management's current expectations, beliefs and projections, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain. Such expectations, beliefs and projections are expressed in good faith. However, there can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs and projections will be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from what is expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. For a more detailed description of the risks and uncertainties affecting the Company, reference is made to the Company's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'), including, but not limited to, the risks detailed in the Company's annual report filed with the SEC on March 11, 2025 and subsequent filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, subsequent events or circumstances, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information except to the extent required by applicable securities laws. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect thereto or with respect to other forward-looking statements. References and links to websites have been provided as a convenience, and the information contained on such websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release. Polyrizon is not responsible for the contents of third-party websites. Contacts: Michal Efraty Investor Relations IR@
