Albany County Correctional Facility for Children's Benefit Albany NY

Times Union Article from 3/30/06

Successful Transplant Surgery: 

Download Charlene TU

Giovanni DeGeorge at age 15 month's 12-11-2007

On Tuesday evening, December 11, 2007, ACCFCB met with 15 month old Giovanni DeGeorge and his family.    

Giovanni suffers with Eosinophilic esophagitis- swelling of the esophagus (the part of the body connecting the throat and the stomach) caused by an allergic white blood cell, the eosinophila. A form of food allergy that causes severe heartburn symptoms, nausea, vomiting, Reflux, weight loss and food impaction. 

Giovanni was also fitted with a prosthetic right eye in 2007 in Rochester, New York (every 6 mos it will be cleaned & polished; every 3 years it will be enlarged as he grows).
He is developmentally delayed & gets therapy four times a week for early intervention. (Speech therapy & special ed.)
Genetic testing has not determined if there is a common cause for all of Giovanni's complications.
*6 year old sister, Shylyne had open heart surgery in 2007- she seems to be doing fine now.

Upon our visit, we found Giovanni full of youthful energy, playing and walking. He only said "BaBa"...requesting a bottle, no other words. His prosthetic eye looked good, mom said that there is slight rejection with it and doctors were notified (the body sees it as a foreign object). Giovanni tends to tilt his head to the right, almost as if to highlight the use of his good eye.

Dad, Michael is a Correction Officer @ ACCF. Dad previously served in the military and was deployed to Iraq.
Mom, Jamie works for Albany County Dep't of Social Services.

Cameron A. Stackman

Photo Courtesy of Ashley Brown Photography
This is Cameron Alexander Stackman. Cameron was born November 1, 2001 with a condition known as Gastroschisis. He lost all but 2cm of his small intestine due to this birth defect. From day one it was known he'd need an intestinal transplant.

Cameron received his transplanted liver and small intestine on February 6, 2003 at Mount Sinai Medial Center in Manhattan. The transplant was a complete success.

Here is a list of stories related to Cameron Stackman.
Download Troy Record Golf Article 2006

 

 

 

 

 

Cameron's visit with Linda Dagle's Tamarac Middle School Students, 2003

12-07-2015 (A follow up)

Hi John,

Thank you for calling me.  I thoroughly enjoyed talking about Cameron and the wonderful memories associated with him, his family, and my students' responses to him.  My former student. who is now a Berkshire bank teller, Carly Roberts, will be so pleased to hear all about Cameron and you.

 

What a miracle--Cameron is now around the age of the Tamarac seventh graders who fell in love with him when he was a very sick little one-year-old.  One of them wrote  in the Tamarac Middle School 2003 yearbook, "I love seventh grade because I got involved with Cameron Stackman.  He is such an inspiration to me."  Another wrote on a final exam essay, "I just know that all their burdens will drift away like seaweed on the ocean." 

 

I am so thankful that a chance encounter with a newspaper article introduced my students to your wonderful Foundation and  to "baby" Cameron.

 

I wish you the best as you retire to Greenville, South Carolina in June (2016). 

 

With sincere appreciation and admiration,

Linda Dagle

 

Linda further shared these with us-