When Liliana Nover-Baker of Bradford Woods was 7 years old, she was admitted for a ruptured appendix at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx, N.Y.
The event took a more serious turn for Nover-Baker, who was living with her family in Pelham, N.Y.
“The rupture had made my body too toxic from the infection, and my surgeon couldn’t find the pieces of my appendix at that time,” she said.
Because of this, doctors were unable to perform surgery because the situation was too dangerous and toxic in her body. Nover-Baker was put in the children’s hospital cancer ward while she received intensive treatment to try to get rid of the infection, said her mother, Molly.
Another patient named Beverly, who was 21 at the time, was kind enough to befriend Nover-Baker. Beverly, who battled leukemia throughout her childhood, was being treated for brain cancer.
There, Nover-Baker found a calming connection in puzzles and her new friend.
“Puzzles were something we could do together. It got us talking and kept us engaged so that we were not thinking about what our bodies were both fighting off. She was fighting off brain cancer, and my appendix had ruptured,” said the North Allegheny junior.
Reflecting on all that happened to her, Nover-Baker, now 16, came up with an idea about a year ago of donating puzzles to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She and her mother delivered the first batch of 100 puzzles on April 30.
“One of the reasons I wanted to do this for Children’s Hospital is because I deeply regret not keeping in touch with Beverly, and I think about her all the time,” said Nover-Baker, who left the hospital without asking for her friend’s contact information.
“Mine was short compared to others like my roommate Beverly, who was there for several months. The hospital I was in had a playroom, which had games and arts and crafts to keep us busy, and gave us the opportunity to make friends with other kids on the floor,” she said.
She is hoping her puzzles can do the same for other local patients who may find themselves in a similar situation.
Nover-Baker put a lot of thought into the project.
She reached out to famed Pittsburgh photographer Dave DiCello, who generously agreed to work with her and donate two stunning images of the city as the artwork for the puzzles. She also started a GoFundMe fundraiser several months ago, raising nearly $3,000 to produce 200 puzzles for the patients.
It was very important to Nover-Baker to have the puzzles in small, sealed containers to prevent contamination.
It resulted in custom mini-photo 100-piece puzzles to be “given as gifts to as many patients as possible at UPMC’s Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh,” she said.
Officials at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh admired the thoughtful donation.
“It is wonderful to see teens wanting to give back and support other teens. Liliana invested her time, creativity and kindness into thoughtfully designed puzzles for our patients,” said Stephanie Colaberardino, director of the hospital’s Child Life, Volunteer Services and Family Resource Center.
“Puzzles are not only fun and a great distraction, but they also have many other benefits. They help patients work toward completion which can give them a sense of pride and accomplishment when so many other things are out of their control in the hospital,” Colaberardino said.
Puzzles also have cognitive benefits and can be good for patients working on fine motor skills, Colaberardino said.