Malverne/West Hempstead
HERALD Teachers honored in Malverne
Social emotional learning in W.H.
WWII veteran turns 100
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Vol. 27 No. 39
SEPTEMBER 24 - 30, 2020
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Restoring W.H.’s ‘gateway’ Developers discuss plans for National Wholesale Liquidators site By NakEEM GRaNT ngrant@liherald.com
Christina Daly/Herald
a sea of blue Malvernites marched from Westwood Park to Chester A. Reese Veterans Memorial Park for a “Back the Blue” rally last Saturday. More photos, Page 3.
Many West Hempstead residents would agree that restoration of the community’s downtown area is long overdue. One of the locations where residents would like to see residential development is the site of National Wholesale Liquidators on Hempstead Turnpike, which closed last year. “I’ve lived here almost my entire life, and it’s a total eyesore coming into town,” said Maureen Greenberg, president of the West Hempstead Community Support Association. The WHCSA has held several
public meetings with the developer Heatherwood Luxury Rentals during the summer months, in which Heatherwood proposed the construction of three fourstory apartment buildings on Hempstead Turnpike, with 420 apartments. Heatherwood executives estimated that the project would take about three years to complete. “The intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Westminster Road is an iconic intersection, because it’s the gateway into West Hempstead,” Chris Capece, the developer’s president, said during a public meeting in St. Thomas the Apostle School’s Continued on page 9
Local parents reflect on child’s lifesaving liver transplant By NakEEM GRaNT ngrant@liherald.com
When the Herald asked 9--year-old West Hempstead resident Aiden Simms to describe himself, he giggled. “That’s what he does a lot,” said his mother, Nicole McNair. “He has a lot of energy, and he loves to smile.” Bashful at first, Aiden spoke about his love of playing sports, dancing to the video game “Just Dance” on the Nintendo Wii and enjoying the outdoors. Many might find it hard to believe, given his energy, that he was hospitalized more than 10 times by the time he was 3. He was born with ornithine transcarba-
mylase deficiency, a rare liver disease that causes high levels of ammonia to develop in the blood. The ammonia can make its way to the brain, which can results in a coma, brain damage or death. “His body couldn’t process protein because of his disorder,” explained McNair, 46, a specialeducation teacher. “His liver was missing an important enzyme to process protein, and that’s what caused everything to go haywire.” Aiden was born at New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, but was soon transferred to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, which was better equipped to treat him. After
three weeks there, he was put on a plant-based diet, and limited to no more than 10 grams of food per day. Pediatricians taught his parents, McNair and Roland Simms, to prepare his medicine. “It was a lot to process, but we learned how to take care of him,” McNair said. “We made sure that his protein levels were low, but even with that, his disorder would put him back in the hospital.” When Aiden was just 2, doctors placed him on the liver transplant list. They had told his parents when he was born that a liver transplant was a possibility, but they wanted to see if his health would improve. He
received a partial liver from an adult donor in June 2013, in surgery that lasted 12 hours. But there were complications in the weeks afterward, and he needed still another new liver. “There was just a feeling of hopelessness,” said Simms, 46, a train operator with the MTA, “and we were just hoping that the doctors were able to do what-
ever they could to help him survive.” Aiden received a second liver — this time from another child — on Sept. 1, 2013. He stayed in the hospital for another three weeks to recover, but this time there were no complications. “It was bittersweet to know that we’re getting a lifesaving Continued on page 14