{"id":73153,"date":"2025-12-17T10:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/73153\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T10:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:36:16","slug":"northwell-siuh-extends-day-of-surprises-to-employee-facing-holiday-grief-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/73153\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwell SIUH extends \u2018Day of Surprises\u2019 to employee facing holiday grief (photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 As someone who has had a family member spend time in Northwell\u2019s Staten Island University Hospital\u2019s Intensive Care Unit, I have witnessed countless hospital employees go above and beyond in the care they provide to Staten Island\u2019s sick and injured.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said we are different than the other boroughs, that Staten Island is \u201ca small Island,\u201d where people still know one another and look out for one another.<\/p>\n

In February, while covering a story about fire victim Ian Pereles<\/a> receiving a \u201cclap-out\u201d celebration two days before his third birthday, I witnessed doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff lined up to say goodbye to their special patient.<\/p>\n

And days before Christmas in 2023, I reported on 9-year-old cancer patient, Kathleen Ortega<\/a>, of Stapleton, and her battle against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.<\/p>\n

That year, Dr. Brahim Ardolic, executive director of SIUH, accompanied by hospital staff, provided Ortega with a \u201cDay of Surprises\u201d at Joseph and Marisa DiMartino\u2019s famous Christmas House with their \u201cBetter than Macy\u2019s\u201d Christmas display, in Charleston.<\/p>\n

Ardolic\u2019s team ensured that Ortega\u2019s sisters, Kaylee, 13, and Keisi, 7, and brother Kevin, 6, received gifts from Santa Claus, who bore a close resemblance to Frank Morisano, senior director of community health at SIUH.<\/p>\n

One of their own<\/p>\n

When the DiMartino\u2019s kicked off their 2025 Lights for Life campaign<\/a>, SIUH staff informed me that this year, one of their own would be the recipient of the \u201cDay of Surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without hesitating, I asked my manager at the Advance\/SILive.com to let me cover this assignment.<\/p>\n

Taisha Figueroa is a beloved member of the hospital staff, working as an environmental service worker for 25 years at the hospital\u2019s North Campus in Ocean Breeze.<\/p>\n

In October, her son, Raymond Irizarry Jr., 25,<\/a> was killed in a horrific car accident on the Staten Island Expressway.<\/p>\n

Her daughter-in-law and six-year-old granddaughter are now living with her, and Figueroa is caring for them while the family is still grieving the loss.<\/p>\n

Meagan Sills, the newly appointed president of Northwell\u2019s SIUH, was on hand Tuesday to show her support, saying that caring for a colleague is a reflection of the hospital\u2019s core values of quality care and compassion within a \u201csmall Island\u201d community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the very people that have the compassion and empathy to take care of those patients . . . now it\u2019s our opportunity to give back in a very powerful and meaningful way at a special time of the year,\u2019’ Sills said. \u201cPaired with a great DeMartino family, time and time again we are invested not only in Staten Island University Hospital, but, in this very example, directly back to the community through a healthcare worker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figueroa was accompanied to the DeMartino\u2019s Christmas House with Ralph Rivera, her daughter, Tiffany Irrizarry; granddaughter, Julissa Irrizarry, 6, and grandson Matthew Reyes, 4.<\/p>\n

Santa \u201cMichael Hill\u201d Claus was on hand with early Christmas presents for the children. <\/p>\n

Figueroa said the hospital has been there for her every day. \u201cI never imagined they would treat me like family, but they had been there like family for me … I feel like they adopted me,\u2019’ she said. \u201cThe support from work, it was something I guess I really needed because if I didn\u2019t have support from my job, I don\u2019t think I could make it,\u201d Figueroa added.<\/p>\n

Claudette Hill, director of community health at SIUH, said this year\u2019s event is particularly special, providing an opportunity for the staff to give back to one of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can brighten up the day of one of your co-workers, one of your colleagues, it makes a big difference … just showing them love, it means a lot\u201a\u2019\u2019 Hill said. \u201cSeeing Julissa\u2019s face light up when she saw the American Girl doll made the day for me; that\u2019s all I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 As someone who has had a family member spend time in Northwell\u2019s Staten Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-73153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}