STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
New Jersey man donates kidney
to longtime Bergen Beach pal
BERGEN BEACH
A New Jersey man went above and
beyond for his Bergen Beach pal last
month, when he laid down on the operating
table to give the greatest gift of
all — a kidney!
Doctors diagnosed Bergen Beacher
Anthony Gallo with kidney failure
18 months ago, and while many people
kept him in their prayers, Richard
Webster, Gallo’s friend of 30 years, decided
to go the extra mile.
With the Gallo clan’s history of diabetes
and kidney failure, his family
and friends weren’t surprised to discover
his condition, but Webster’s decision
to not only get tested, but — upon
discovering he was a perfect match —
to ultimately donate his precious organ
blew them away.
“What was really a shock was my
husband was a match,” said Maureen
Webster, Richard Webster’s wife and
the Gallos’ lifelong friend. “I think it’s
a miracle.”
After months of dieting, working
out, and hospital tests, Webster lost the
30 pounds necessary for him to donate
one of his healthy kidneys and the pair
of friends fi nally went under the knife
in late July.
Waking up from the operation at
St. Barnabas in Livingston with one
healthy kidney each, the best buds discovered
they weren’t the only ones to
undergo surgery that day.
The Webster’s 11 year-old Peekapoo,
Molli, had to go into surgery too
when her gallbladder suddenly burst.
Today, Maureen Webster says Gallo,
Webster, and Molli are all on the road
to recovery.
“It’s two weeks today now actually
and they’re doing great,” said Silver
Gallo, Gallo’s wife. “Thank God for
our friends. They gave my husband
his life back and his future, we didn’t
know how long he would make it.”
— Elizabeth Winn
COURIER L 36 IFE, AUG. 9-15, 2019
GREENPOINT
These green thumbs are taking
gardening to new heights!
A Greenpoint-based urban
landscaping group is pushing
Kings County property owners
to take a top-down approach to environmental
sustainability by
transforming their rooftops into
verdant gardens.
“I believe that New York City
needs nature and green roofs are
the only place left in New York
City to create a natural habitat,”
said Marni Majorelle, founder of
Alive Structures, located at 130
Diamond St. between Meserole
and Norman avenues.
Last month, Majorelle and her
team at Alive Structures hosted a
panel to discuss their green-roof
movement alongside other environmental
advocates at a rooftop
meadow, called Kingsland Wildfl
owers, located atop Broadway
Stages in Greenpoint, which the
green thumbs used as an example
of rooftop gardening done right,
before discussing how sky farms
can help their borough weather
global warming.
“Green roofs are not just pretty
or decoration,” Majorelle said.
“Green roofs are an absolute necessity
in this city as we move into
a hotter and wetter climate.”
The elevated oases provide a
variety of environmental benefits,
including absorbing and
retaining stormwater, reducing
temperatures, cutting energy
costs, improving air quality,
and creating more homes for
birds, bees, and creepy crawlies
high in the sky, according to Majorelle.
However, specifi c structural requirements
and hefty installation
cost make Majorelle’s green-roof
movement a tough sell for many
property owners, and she praised
Broadway Stages — a sound stage
and equipment supplier for television
productions — for jumping
on the bandwagon!
“Broadway stages has really
been a catalyst for raising awareness
for green roofs,” Majorelle
said. — Elizabeth Winn
BOROUGH WIDE
Three cheers for NYC Health +
Hospitals, which was recently honored
as one of the best care providers
in the nation for patients suffering
heart failure.
U.S. News and World Report released
its annual study of more than
4,500 medical centers nationwide on
July 30, recognizing the most outstanding
hospitals in 16 areas of care
— including heart care, neurology,
and geriatrics.
Seven NYC Health + Hospitals
branches — Coney Island, Kings
County, Bellevue, Elmhurst, Harlem,
Jacobi, and Lincoln — ranked
in the top 10 percent when it came to
treating heart failure, a condition
where the heart cannot pump enough
blood to meet the body’s needs, earning
the consumer-advice publication’s
“high performance” stamp of
approval.
“We are honored to have our hospitals
recognized by U.S. News &
World Report,” said Mitchell Katz,
president of NYC Health + Hospitals.
“It is a testament to our doctors,
nurses, and entire staff who strive
every day to make their patients the
healthiest they can be.”
The head of the Coney Island hospital
branch attributed the recognition
to its dedicated staff and the
modernized medical equipment at
the hospital.
“The combination of our multidisciplinary
team of clinical experts and
state-of-the-art equipment like our
cardiac catheterization laboratory
creates an environment in which patients
thrive and experience better
outcomes,” said William Brown.
The U.S. News and World Report
uses various data-driven methods to
rank the hospitals annually in an effort
to help patients make better decisions
about where to receive medical
care, according to the organization’s
Chief of Health Analysis.
“By providing the most comprehensive
data available on nearly every
hospital across the United States,
we give patients, families and physicians
information to support their
search for the best care across a
range of procedures, conditions and
specialties,” said Ben Harder.
— Aidan Graham
The Kingsland Wildfl owers rooftop is located atop Broadway Stages in Greenpoint.
Alive Structures
Landscapers show property owners
how to turn rooftops into gardens
Richard Webster and Anthony Gallo recuperating
following surgery. Photo by John Vitollo