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Honoring Her Wishes
Memorial Foundation for Student Killed Abroad Helps Children
Cherese Laulhere died before she could see her baby god-daughter.
But Laulhere's legacy, a foundation to benefit children with
problems, is touching the dark-haired girl today. Laulhere
and four other Americans perished when their bus overturned
en route to the Taj Mahal in March of 1996.
A 21-year-old UCLA senior, Laulhere was to travel next to
the Philippines to continue her Semester at Sea studies, where
she would have seen the photos of god-daughter Olivia Niro,
born just the month before. The pictures had been sent by
Olivia's mother, a childhood friend of Laulhere.
Chris and Larry Laulhere
with Olivia Niro
In their grief, Laulhere's parents vowed to carry out their
daughter's dream of making a difference in the lives of children.
Who better to help than Olivia, who was born with nasal dysplasia,
a malformation of the nose and surrounding tissues?
Chris and Larry Laulhere of Long Beach established the Cherese
Mari Laulhere Foundation, which has given $6,000 to Children's
Hospital of Orange County, where Olivia has undergone extensive
treatment since she was days old. "We thought about Olivia
and how Cherese would have touched her life," Chris Laulhere
said, "And I thought, what better way to keep them pulled
together." CHOC in Orange has matched the $6,000. Which
has gone to the hospital's cleft-craniofacial program, the
only one of its kind in Orange County to treat children with
birth defects of the palate, face and skull.
The program treats primarily children born with cleft lip
or cleft palate, malformations of the mouth that occur about
once in every 1,000 births. Other patients include children
with craniosynotosis, a condition in which the plates of the
skull fuse prematurely, before birth, the skull normally does
not fuse until a person is about 18. The CHOC program brings
together a team of doctors, headed by pediatrician and geneticist
Dr. Touran Zadeh, to help the babies and their families through
the medical and emotional difficulties. "It's very hard
on families when a child is born with facial problems and
looks different," Zadeh said. Parents often feel shocked,
saddened and anxious about the baby they had anticipated to
be the picture of health, she said.
Olivia's parents:
Sophia Pen & Carlos Niro
Treatment for cleft palate does not end with reconstructive
surgery on the lip and mouth, Zadeh said. "You have to
ask, 'What effect will it have on other functions?'"
she said. Children with cleft lip or palate tend to have fluid
collect in their middle ears, leading to infections and hearing
problems, she said. They have speech problems and teeth grow
improperly, she said. Orthodontic work, surgery on the gums
and placement of tubes in the ears are necessary. Members
of the team include plastic surgeons to reconstruct the mouth
and palate; a craniofacial surgeon for more extensive facial
surgeries; neurosurgeons; ear, nose and throat specialists;
orthodontists; speech therapists and audiologists. In addition,
a nurse specialist, Carol Ursich, works with newborns and
their parents to solve feeding problems, and a social worker
helps put the families in touch with support groups and addresses
emotional issues, Zadeh said.
About 25 years old, the CHOC program now has about 1,200 patients
ranging from newborn to 21 years old. All children with cleft
of craniofacial abnormalities are accepted, regardless of
their families' ability to pay, Zadeh said. The family of
a former patient provided a grant that helps cover costs not
paid for by insurance, she said.
The Cherese Mari Laulhere Foundation grant is the first donation
that can be used for research into craniosynotosis and other
abnormalities, Zadeh said. Recent research has determined
that certain genes are involved in the premature closure of
the skull sutures, she said. "It's very important to
do genetic testing on these cases. We need to try to clone
the gene, to see if anything can be done" to diagnose
the conditions before birth, Zadeh said. Prenatal ultrasounds
do not detect the problems, she said.
One of Zadeh's patients is Olivia Niro, who underwent surgery
in November to remove bone from her forehead, bring her eyes
closer together and remove a "skin tab" on her forehead.
She might need additional surgery on her nose in the future,
said her mother, Sophia Pen. Olivia also had two surgeries
-not performed by the craniofacial team- when she was 4 and
9 months old, to separate her webbed fingers and toes, she
said.
CHOC was the second beneficiary of the Cherese Mari Laulhere
Foundation. The first donation went to Long Beach Memorial
Medical Center, where Cherese Laulhere was born. The gift
is being used to purchase a machine that will keep children
alive as they await kidney transplants. Cherese Laulhere had
been adamant about wanting to be an organ donor, said Chris
Laulhere, who sports an ever-present angel pendant she gave
her daughter on her last Christmas. "That didn't get
to happen, but this will help kids in the very same way."
The next foundation gift will be to CHOC's pet therapy program,
which brings specially trained dogs into the hospital to visit
the children and boost their spirits. "To my daughter,
animals were the same as people," Laulhere said. The
family also is contemplating a donation to a shelter for battered
women with children.
"The foundation is funded mainly with money Cherese Laulhere
left behind. The Laulheres and families of other bus crash
victims have wrongful death lawsuits pending against the University
of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Shipboard Education, sponsors
of the Semester at Sea. Any judgment or settlement from the
lawsuit, Laulhere said, will go to the foundation.
The donation to CHOC's cleft and craniofacial program, to
assist children like Olivia, helps ease the loss, said Pen,
Olivia's mother. "Cherese was the most genuine, sincere
person with the biggest heart. I know what an impact she would
have had in Olivia's life," Pen said. "This keeps
her in her life."
Olivia playing on Cherese's bed
By MARCIDA DODSON
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Copyright 1998, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission.
July 26, 1998.
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