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Mental Health Vol. 33 No. 30
JUlY 21 - 27, 2022
$1.00
Council recognizes dog, cop, skater By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Bob Arkow/Herald
DAISY THE Dog was honored at a City Council meeting Tuesday night for barking long and loud enough to alert her owners to a fire in the house next door.
The workaday business of the Long Beach City Council took a backseat Tuesday night to what seemed more like a prime-time television show. An inline skating enthusiast at last persuaded the council to allow the activity on the boardwalk; a mixed-breed dog named Daisy was proclaimed a hero for barking loud enough to awaken her owners to a fire next door; and a veteran auxiliary police officer was honored for earning a diploma from the Nassau County AuxiliaContinued on page 9
‘Dr. Josh’ hopes you’ll help him find a new kidney By JAMES BERNSTEIN jbernstein@liherald.com
Dr. Joshua Siegel, a chiropractor who has helped thousands of patients at his Long Beach and Bellmore offices, now needs help himself: He needs a new kidney. Siegel, 46, became a chiropractor in 2004, fulfilling a lifelong dream that began after his father, Joel, died at 38. Joshua said that his father gained a few extra years of life through chiropractic treatments. Although he achieved his goal, and opened two Cafe of Life chiropractic offices — including one in Long Beach, where he, his wife and son now live — Siegel’s
life has been marked by tragedy. A decade ago, a man he describes as his “spiritual mentor,” Pasqua Cerasoli, died. Cerasoli, a fellow chiropractor, took Siegel under his wing after the two met years ago at a professional convention in New Jersey. On March 1, 2021, Siegel’s wife, Holly November, lost a baby girl she had been carrying for 31½ weeks. “It crushed us,” Siegel said last week. Then, this past February, he said, he felt poorly and went for medical tests. He was told by a doctor that he needed to be admitted to a hospital immediately. Then he was informed that he was in renal failure. He said
last week that he believed the loss of his child contributed to the decline in his health. “The doctors didn’t know how I was walking around,” he said. His kidney function is now down to about 20 percent, which affects him physically and emotionally. He is on dialysis, a procedure that removes waste and excess fluid when a kidney isn’t working properly. The procedure, Siegel said, makes him feel “as if I had run a marathon.” He had to cut back on work at his two offices, and is going through his savings. This week, he and his wife planned to start an online crowdfunding page.
Two weeks ago, Siegel said, he began a lengthy and exhaustive evaluation process at New YorkPresbyterian Columbia University Medical Center. He will soon be on a waiting list for a kidney donor, but that list is years long. He is hoping for a living donor, because kidneys from living people last longer than organs from those who have died.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, about 100,000 people in the United States are awaiting kidney transplants, and in 2021, nearly 6,000 people received living kidney donations. Siegel said he is accustomed to loss in his life. His father died a week after his bar mitzvah. “He Continued on page 5