Lindsey Meglio
W
ith persistence, confidence and impassioned spirit, Lindsey Meglio works hard to make the miracles in her life happen. When diagnosed with widespread Hodgkin’s lymphoma on her 11th birthday, Lindsey didn’t even know what scan and see cancer was, and frankly, was more concerned with keeping up her grades, making soccer practice and getting on with life than accommodating the LINDSEY MEGLIO inconveniences of her treatment plan. Three months post-treatment (on her 12th birthday), Lindsey relapsed. With a recurrence so
1994 HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA PATIENT SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION PRODUCER
soon, her prognosis was grave. The cancer was in her bone marrow, and treatment included chemotherapy, radiation therapy and transfusion of her own stem cells. Lindsey had a 30 to 50 percent chance of survival and, through it all, the Meglios waited and hoped for a miracle — right along with her care team. Lindsey’s optimism and faith, combined with the care at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, gave her the miracle she needed. As the medical center’s then-Children’s Miracle Network Ambassador, she assisted with telethon broadcasts and served as master of ceremonies for the Bob Costas Cancer Center ground-breaking ceremony. With natural confidence behind a microphone, “That is when I started thinking about journalism,” Lindsey says.
She earned a University of Missouri broadcast journalism degree and headed to Chicago for video production work. True to her passion, she landed a research job with The Oprah Winfrey Show. “From the time I was a little girl, I wanted to work for Oprah Winfrey,” she says. With that same persistence, confidence and impassioned spirit, Lindsey proved her professional skills, moved up the ranks and is now coproducer for Oprah’s Next Chapter, a primetime Oprah Winfrey Network interview show. “No question. This is my dream job,” she says. On June 9 Lindsey married her “best friend” Eric Nenninger on a dream-come-true wedding day she describes as “the time of my life. It was such a magical, loving day.” This beautiful bride,
Lindsey and Eric Nenninger
successful television producer and victor over stage four-B Hodgkin’s lymphoma is sticking with that persistence, confidence and impassioned spirit, and the miracles seem to keep happening. “I pinch myself all the time — I’m living my dream life,” she says.
PATIENT Peggy Luesse 1958 SURGICAL SSM CARDINAL GLENNON NURSE
O
ne of the few memories Peggy Luesse recalls from her first stay at Cardinal Glennon Memorial Hospital for Children in the late 1950s was looking down wistfully at her older sister cheerfully waving on the sidewalk below. Today, Peggy’s experiences at the medical center are very different from those during childhood. As an Emergency Department nurse, it’s Peggy who’s caring for and healing others. Coming full circle — back to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in November 2011 — was a process in which Peggy believes God had a hand.
56 • Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation
The early ’90s found this mother of four pursuing a nursing career. She began working in 1995 —in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at SSM Cardinal Glennon — but switched to adult oncology, emergency department, flight nurse and, most recently, “travel nurse” working three-month emergency department contracts in various cities. “I’ve worked all across the U.S. — from New York to L.A.,” Peggy says. Although she’d experienced SSM Cardinal Glennon as a patient and nurse, Peggy was overwhelmed when she accompanied daughter Angie and 1 1/2-year-old grandson Nick to the medical center for emergency care. “He was having respiratory problems, and
we decided to take him to Cardinal Glennon. There was such compassion and caring— it was like God was involved. We’d never experienced that before,” Peggy says. Angie switched Nick’s medical care to SSM Cardinal Glennon, and she and Peggy now share their gratitude as
Glennon Ambassadors. With Nick’s extensive medical needs, Peggy says, “I wish I’d have had someone to help us through his surgery. The hard part was not having hope that it could be fixed. With the Ambassador Program, we can be there for another parent: That’s what I want to bring to the table.” Blessed with six grandchildren, Peggy traded her travel nurse career for a local emergency department position. “The nurse recruiter called and said, ‘How about Cardinal Glennon?’ I hadn’t worked pediatrics since the NICU — but I thought kids need the very best, and I’m a good nurse. Why not?” Peggy says. “Come to find out, I get so much more back from them than I could ever give. I can’t imagine doing anything else.” Peggy Luesse with Emergency Department patient Gabriel Holmes