________________ LONG BEACH _______________
HERALD Also serving Point Lookout & East Atlantic Beach
Class of 2022 Graduation Inside $1.00
Vol. 33 No. 26
NBA player to open camp in l.B.
Inline skates on the boardwalk?
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JUNE 23 - 29, 2022
Home at last, with new lungs Masha Benitez planned to wear a pink dress at the LBHS prom By JAMEs BERNsTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
M
asha Benitez is home. The diminutive 19-year-old from Long Beach, who last month underwent a double lung transplant in a surgical procedure that lasted 13½ hours, came home last week, smiling and enjoying a sunny afternoon in her front yard on Franklin Avenue. Masha had been AdNAN on a waiting list for Tailor two years, and many of her activities had been limited because of her condition, veno-occlusive disease, a rare form of pulmonary hypertension. She has suffered from the condition since childhood. But when lungs became available, Masha immediately went to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan for her surgery. Her recovery was slow. She developed an infection after the surgery, which raised concerns, according to her mother, Michelle Quigley.
W
Photo courtesy Skudin Surf
CAsEy skUdIN ANd his wife, Angela, with their boys, C.J., far left, and Ben.
Casey Skudin is killed when tree limb falls on car in N.C. By JAMEs BERNsTEIN & BRENdAN CARPENTER of the Long Beach Herald
Casey Skudin, a member of the well-known Long Beach Skudin surfing family, was killed last Friday in a freak accident in North Carolina, when a tree limb fell onto the car he was driving during a windstorm, according to North Carolina police. Skudin, a lifelong Long Beach resident and a highly decorated New York City firefighter, was traveling with his family at the time of the accident. They were celebrating his birthday. He would have turned 46 on Sunday. His wife, Angela, and their two sons were also in the car. Angela Skudin escaped
unharmed, but police reported that one of their sons was injured and hospitalized. Members of the Skudin family gathered on Monday at the Skudin Surf Shop on the boardwalk and Riverside Boulevard to share memories of Casey, who was also a Town of Hempstead lifeguard and a CrossFit coach. “Angela wants everyone to know that he was a great father,” said Casey’s cousin Cliff Skudin. Cliff said that Casey took his sons on trips to Montauk and Costa Rica to surf. “People loved him,” Cliff said. “He was a good dude.” Another relative, Ian Skudin, said, “People looked up to him. He lived humbly, led by Continued on page 25
Family members were at Masha’s bedside every day of her hospitalization. Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, said in a telephone interview earlier this week that lung transplants, including double lung transplants, have become more common in recent years, as medical technology has advanced. Better medicines are available to deal with the body’s ETIkE natural reaction to reject new organs, and survival rates are higher. But, Rizzo said, “Some studies say the transplants may not prolong life, but might improve life.” He noted that all cases are different, and the outcome of surgery depends on a variety of factors, including age and other health issues. But Masha’s recovery continued over the weeks, and she was finally able to walk around the hospital. She Continued on page 4
hen she put it on, she looked like Cinderella.