Mary Lou Carta: Brave spirit inspires a place for teens

The newly rehabbed teen lounge in the Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital (RMCH) of Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC) would have been the perfect place for Michael Carta to have kicked back to watch a baseball game on the flat screen television. Although he cannot be there physically, Michael's spirit lives on in the Michael Carta and Louis Sciame Teen Lounge.

The renovation has been made possible by a $40,000 gift from Mary Lou Carta in honor of her late son, Michael, who had been a cancer patient at Loyola University Health System (Loyola) in the late 1980s, and her late brother, Louis. "It's a good way to let people know the kind of men they were," she says, describing Michael as a quiet and laid-back young man who also was very courageous and funny. "He never complained the whole time he was sick," she recalls. "He was upbeat and funny, and the one child I could depend on to make me laugh."

Mrs. Carta's brother, Louis Sciame, stepped in as a father figure to her four children when she was widowed in 1975. "Louis was a very generous, giving man to my children," she says. "He and Michael were especially close."

Mrs. Carta, of Broadview, Ill., was a Loyola employee from 1985-1996. She worked as a secretary in Hospital Administration, then in several divisions within the Department of Internal Medicine including rheumatology, renal disease and hypertension. Her son, Michael, was diagnosed with cancerous schwannoma, a tumor originating from the Schwann cells that cover nerves, during his senior year of high school. He underwent several surgeries and chemotherapies during his 17 months of treatments until his death at age 19.

"The care Michael received at Loyola was superb, and the nursing staff was wonderful," Mrs. Carta recalls. "I met a lot of caring and compassionate people who made our difficult ordeal more bearable."

After Michael's death, a number of Mrs. Carta's friends made memorial donations to the family, encouraging her to keep Michael's spirit alive. She donated some of the money to Loyola and the gift was used to purchase computers for the teen lounge.

When her late brother left her $40,000 recently, Mrs. Carta once again thought of Loyola. "Looking back on Michael's care, I remembered there were not a lot of activities in the hospital for the teens compared to the younger children," she recalls.

Mrs. Carta's gift provided a complete overhaul for the teen room, from the floors to the walls. "Our goal was to give it a teen-friendly, coffee-house look," says Julie Jones, Child Life coordinator, RMCH of LUMC.

The lounge is equipped with two flat screen televisions, adjustable lighting, a couch and several small tables and chairs, creating a comfortable spot to watch DVDs, play video games, use laptop computers and play board games.

"Our teen patients use the room daily and was sorely in need of an update," Ms. Jones says. "There is no way the rehab could have been completed without Mrs. Carta's gift."