Find out how you can join Chicago Yachad in the Miami Marathon by attending an information session this Thursday

Miami Marathon with Chicago Yachad

Join us for an informational meeting on Thursday evening October 31st  at the home of Chaim and Zahava Suss, 2901 West Fargo Avenue in Chicago at 7:30 PM. You can do it !! Run with Team Yachad, get out of the Chicago cold and have a warm weekend in the beautiful Miami sun! Runners will receive round trip airfare, hotel accommodations, an incredible weekend experience at the Deauville Beach Resort, guaranteed race admission, pre-race pasta party, post-race BBQ, Super Bowl Party, great giveaways, and a unforgettable experience.  Race date is Sunday February  2, 2014. For more information please email chicagoyachad@ou.org.

Skokie Review – Lifesaver: Skokie business man donates marrow to save stranger

Shalom Klein - bone marrow donor

By: Mike Isaacs | misaacs@pioneerlocal.com | @SKReview_Mike

SKOKIE — Shalom Klein’s on again-off again journey to help save a stranger’s life suddenly became on again.

The 25-year-old Skokie resident reported in the early morning Oct. 14 to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he spent his full day hooked up to a machine donating bone marrow.

Only last month, this day seemed like it might never arrive — or at least not so soon.

After the procedure had already been postponed twice — presumably because of the recipient’s failing health — Klein received a message from the National Bone Registry Program.

The recipient’s kidneys were failing, Klein was told, and the date was called off again; moreover, it was uncertain whether he would recover and Klein’s cells would be needed at all.

“Needless to say, I am devastated,” he said at the time.

But if there is anything he has learned through his courageous adventure, it’s that conditions can change in a hurry. Klein never stopped reporting in for blood draws — mandatory preparation for a bone marrow procedure — and a new date was scheduled as quickly as the last one was cancelled.

“People need to get swabbed,” he said while in the hospital waiting room Monday where he would start his fifth day of injections to prepare his body for the procedure.

“Most people will never get called, but you need to make yourself available. It’s such an easy, easy step that you can take,” he said.

Klein took that step a year or so ago when he saw Temple Beth Israel in Skokie was sponsoring a drive in the name of a member who had died. He quickly had his cheek swabbed and then forgot about it.

Months later, he received a call telling him that he was the best and perhaps only match in the entire bank for a recipient fighting acute leukemia.

He never wavered in his decision to move forward, although he had to run it by his family first. From the start, Klein said, this was a chance to save a life, an opportunity few people are handed.

That opportunity did not come without some sacrifice. In addition to the many blood draws needed to be scheduled, Klein received injections last week that he was told would make him feel somewhat ill — but without permanent risk.

The night before Monday’s procedure, however, he visited the emergency room, which doctors say is rare. He felt nauseated and like his sternum was being squeezed.

Most of the time, doctors said, the injections will produce flu-like symptoms. More normal was that Klein felt aches and pains including a sore back, all of which subside during and in the days after the procedure.

But even with his unexpected call to the emergency room, Klein said he has no regrets whatsoever.

“I wouldn’t change one thing,” he said. In fact, he has made himself available to the hospital for anyone considering doing the same thing who wants to talk to him.

“I certainly would be honest about what I’ve gone through,” he said “But what is a little bit of pain relative to somebody’s life?”

Lutheran General

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital is one of only three medical institutions in the Chicago area that perform such a procedure. (Loyola University Medical Center and University of Chicago Medical Center are the others.) It performs 20 to 25 procedures a year.

A small and dedicated team monitor the donor closely from preparation to aftermath. Klein said from the start that it’s been comforting to know he’s in excellent hands.

Nurse Mary Hurd, the hospital’s transplant program supervisor, was the first who tended to Klein Monday morning. While giving him his final injections, she received an update on his condition.

Klein said the shots themselves are not painful, but he has felt ill from the aftermath.

“I called Dr. Klein last night,” he told her. “I was in excruciating pain.”

Dr. Leonard Klein (no relation to Shalom), the hospital’s transplant medical director, was immediately responsive. Klein received medicine during his emergency room visit and felt better — although hardly great — when he reported Monday morning.

“It’s such a benign process that the vast majority of patients hardly ever need medical attention,” Dr. Klein said. “Usually Tylenol or Advil or Aleve will take care of the pain.”

Dr. Klein said it’s sometimes difficult to find a match for a transplant, but the more donors in the registry, the better the chances. Once a match is found, it takes months to make sure the match is available and ready.

“There is special testing and blood work and (Shalom) can tell you how many tubes of blood were drawn,” he said. “By the time I see the patients to give their consent, they have gone through a lot of medical evaluation beforehand.”

The good news is that the time it takes to find a critical donor has been reduced from past years, Dr. Klein said.

“It could have been three, four, five months,” he said. “Now it can be anywhere from six weeks to eight to 10 weeks, and that makes a difference.”

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital has been performing these procedures since 1995 or so. The transplant program itself is 23 years old.

“The actual process hasn’t changed much at all,” Dr. Klein said. “What’s different about our unit is that we’re now able to get a quick evaluation of what the concentration of the stem cells in the blood stream are by doing testing and we can make good predictions.”

According to the National Bone Marrow Registry Program, about one in 540 registry members in the United States go on to donate bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells to a patient.

“Because of the vast variation in tissue types, we can’t predict an individual registry member’s chance of donating to a patient,” the National Bone Marrow Registry Program states.

Those in the registry who match a patient are asked to donate either bone marrow or cells from circulating blood (known as PBSC donation). Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure done under general or regional anesthesia in a hospital. While a donor receives anesthesia, doctors use needles to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of the pelvic bone.

PBSC donation, which was Klein’s procedure, is non-surgical and done in an outpatient clinic. The injections of filgrastim Klein received increased the number of blood-forming cells in his bloodstream. The cells are rushed to the recipient who has been prepared to receive them.

“By the time (Shalom) is getting the injections,” Dr. Klein said, “the recipient has already gone through a round of usually heavy doses of chemotherapy. So if (Shalom) doesn’t show up here on time, and there’s a delay or he decides not to do it, which has never happened, the patient could be in trouble.”

Little is known by the donor about the patient because of privacy. In this case, Klein was told the recipient is male and age 69, but where the cells will be delivered remains a mystery. In a year, if the recipient is doing well and both parties agree, they can meet for the first time.

“They purposefully do not even give me much information except what I need to know,” Dr. Klein said.

The success rate of “engrafment” — the process of transplanting cells so they produce new cells — is at least 90 percent, Dr. Klein said. “Usually within 14 days or so with this type of a transplant, (Shalom’s) cells will start to mature and grow in the recipient.”

This doesn’t ensure that the patient will thrive, however, because the patient still has to overcome his or her disease.

The success of the transplant comes down to Shalom’s transplanted immune cells recognizing the leukemic cells as being foreign and killing them off.

“Depending on the type of disease we’re transplanting, that determines the success rate,” Dr. Klein said.

Where a patient may have a 5 or 10 percent chance of surviving without a transplant, Dr. Klein said, his chances may be somewhere between 50 to 75 percent with it.

Read more at Skokie Review…

The Certificate in Jewish Leadership

Shalom Klein and Michael Waitz

 

The Certificate in Jewish Leadership—sponsored by Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies and Spertus Institute — is dedicated to transforming American Jewish life by enhancing the professional abilities of Jewish leaders. The curriculum is rooted in the belief that Judaism has its own distinct and insightful approaches to leadership. Through lectures, group work, and individual mentoring led by Northwestern and Spertus faculty, participants will learn best practices drawn from contemporary leadership principles and classical Jewish texts and thought.

Traditionally, programs for Jewish leadership have focused either on management skills or Jewish literacy. In this program, leadership training is taught within a distinctively Jewish context. Participants will learn to access and improve their own leadership, to articulate vision and inspire and motivate stakeholders, to improve collaboration, to achieve organizational goals, to hone their communication skills, and to plan and execute for the future.

Newly minted leader Michael Waitz said, “I have been able to take what I have learned in each class and use it to enhance the work I am doing professionally.” His co-participant Shalom Klein said, “I benefited from a structure that taught us both the historical and practical elements of leadership. I would strongly recommend the program to lay and professional leaders in the Jewish community.”

Jewish B2B Networking is proud to offer a quarterly professionals luncheon, networking and educational opportunity

These programs, which are open to lawyers, accountants, bankers, financial and other service industry professionals, will feature different educational topics. A very limited number of seats are available. THIS SESSION WILL DISCUSS: Health Care Reform: “Must Know” Information for Professionals

Join us on November 5, 2013 at 11:30am. More information and registration is available at:

http://www.jewishb2bnetworking.com/business-event/paychex-ssg-4th-quarter-professionals-luncheon

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act—collectively referred to as Health Care Reform—were signed into law in March 2010.  Health Care Reform includes many provisions that may affect you and your clients.

This seminar focuses on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – collectively referred to as Health Care Reform. This session will help you understand the new requirements resulting from Health Care Reform. You will learn how your clients can benefit from, and stay compliant with, the key provisions, such as the Health Insurance Exchanges, Small Business Tax Credit, Form W-2 reporting, grandfathering, and non-discrimination.

CPE (continuing education) credits will be provided for participation in the 45 minute Jewish B2B Networking presentation. There will be no cost for this program and Kosher lunch, thanks to the sponsorship of Paychex and SS&G.

 

                            

Join us on November 5, 2013 at 11:30am. More information and registration is available at:

http://www.jewishb2bnetworking.com/business-event/paychex-ssg-4th-quarter-professionals-luncheon

The Real Self-Leadership Challenge – Thriving in today’s challenging times

The J2J Networking Group in conjunction with Jewish B2B Networking will hold their next program on Wednesday November 6th at 7:30 PM at Kehilat Chovevei Tzion, 9220 N. Crawford, Skokie. The guest speaker with be Phil Gafka, Certified Business Coach, executive coach and principal of LEAP Associates, Inc.

This informative program will provide valuable tools for both job-seekers and employed professionals. Join us for this excellent learning and networking opportunity, and please share this with friends and colleagues.

The Real Self-Leadership Challenge –
             Thriving in today’s challenging times                                                           Presented by Phil Gafka                               

It’s a new day and new rules are evolving in these challenging economic times. “Business as usual” doesn’t exist any longer.
Whether your industry is down-sized, right-sized or capsized, where do you fit in today’s new economy? First and foremost, you must know yourself and you must know what you want life and your business to deliver to you.
This presentation will explore the self-leadership challenge and guide you to create a compelling vision of leadership for your business, your career and your life.
No matter what point you are in your professional journey, you need to know and understand how to develop your leadership possibilities.
In his presentation, Phil will explore:
  •    Leadership definition/characteristics/ traits
  •   Leadership Development
  •   The Formula for Success
  •    Seven steps to creating and achieving meaningful goals
Leaders get results – learn how to turn your potential into performance!