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'They've been my angels'

A hospital CEO fights for her life, with lots of help.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 13, 2006

There are 750 paper cranes in Pam Riter's office, created with the Japanese legend in mind that says anyone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish.

Riter, chief executive officer of Kindred Hospital St. Petersburg, was diagnosed with breast cancer in August. The paper cranes are from her staff. In the months since she shared the news of her illness, her employees have rallied to her side.

They've attached a large pink ribbon in support of breast cancer awareness on the sign at the hospital's entrance and hung ornaments and cards of good wishes on a Christmas tree fashioned of pink feathers. They've named the improbable tree, which sits just outside Riter's office, the "wishmas" tree. Many of the 230 staffers have donned pink breast cancer bracelets and hope pins, and in October about three dozen took part in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure and raised more than $2,500.

On Tuesday morning, they presented half the money they raised from carwashes and bake sales to All Children's Hospital's pediatric cancer unit. Hospital spokeswoman Ann Miller said the $1,200 will be used for the unit's playroom. Another $1,200 will go to the hospital's new Parent-to-Parent Support Group for hematology and oncology patients.

Riter has been moved by her staff's kindness and concern. "The outpouring has been absolutely amazing ... The people that come to pray with you, the people that stop to talk to you, just the little things. The little gifts, whatever motivates them to motivate me," she said.

Employees even approached Kindred's corporate office to ask for a restroom for her office, Riter said. "They were afraid that I was going to be sick during the day," she said. "I didn't want it. It wasn't me, but just that they would even think about that, it just touches me ... They've been my angels."

Helene Bush, a social worker and case manager, said the employees at the hospital off Sixth Street S are like a family and were devastated when Riter announced that she was battling cancer. "Everybody is just coming together for her. She means that much to us," Bush said. "She's one of the reasons I'm still here. I know a job is a job, but she's just there for you."

Bush and Debbie Nugent, director of recruitment, were among those who decided to make the donation to All Children's oncology unit. "We felt that the focus of our Christmas charity this year should be the oncology unit because of Pam's recent diagnosis," Bush said. Another employee, Mary Lubin, organized a team of 40 staffers and family members for October's cancer walk.

Riter, 51, who discovered a lump in her breast during a routine self- exam, is part of a clinical research trial at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center that ends at the end of the month. She is undergoing her sixth round of chemotherapy.

"I'm trying to control the fatigue instead of the fatigue controlling me," she said.

She has been head of Kindred's St. Petersburg hospital, a long-term acute-care facility, since 1997 and is philosophical about her illness when she considers the difficulties of her patients and their families. "It's just my piece and my turn," said Riter, who doesn't hide her bald head. "It's nice not to have to shave your legs," she joked.

The paper cranes, dozens made by Donna Peck, a Kindred employee whose father is also ill, hang from mobiles in a corner of Riter's office on Big Bayou.

"They make them every day," she said. "They've even found ceramic ones to put on my Christmas tree. They are all different colors, all different shapes, large and small."

[Last modified December 12, 2006, 21:08:15]