Contact Us

Staff

Boston Globe: Obese man benefits from BMC treatment

Concerned physicians treating Peter Kefalides, who weighed 1,050 pounds in August 2000, sent out e-mails nationwide in an effort to find treatment for the 31-year-old man who had lived in a bed for 11 years and was at risk for heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and gout. Boston Medical Center's Nutrition and Weight Management Center responded, and after a radical diet and surgery, he weighs about 400 pounds and continues to lose weight, says the January 30 Boston Globe. "We've had cases of 500, 600, even 700 pounds," says Caroline Apovian, a MED associate professor and director of nutrition support services at BMC. "But never a thousand. Something had to be done." After BMC put Kefalides on a protein-only diet, which he followed from home, he lost 460 pounds in three months and was able to fly to BMC for surgery. Apovian and surgeon R. Armour Force decided on a radical gastric bypass procedure, where part of Kefalides stomach was stapled off and part of his small intestine rerouted to decrease the calories and nutrients his body absorbed. "More and more people are getting this surgery," says Avopian. "We've perfected it." Kefalides is now back in Seattle, able to walk with the assistance of a walker and go outside for the first time in years.

Calgary Herald: 1980 Olympic "miracle" memories never die

The winter Olympics returns to the United States for the first time since 1980, when former Terrier hockey player and U.S. men's hockey captain Mike Eruzione (SED'77) and his teammates won the gold medal. In an interview with the Calgary Herald on January 29, Eruzione, BU's director of development for athletics, compares the political climate of 1980 with that of 2002: "Salt Lake and Lake Placid [have] so much in common. The hostages in Iran, the Soviets having just invaded Afghanistan. And now, of course, what happened on September 11." For the first time in 22 years, all 20 members of the "Miracle on Ice" team will attend a winter Olympics. "Some of these guys won't have seen each other for 20 years. It's going to be fun, emotional," Eruzione says. "I can go back into the locker room right now . . . the memories are clear, vivid. I remember being on the podium and hearing the national anthem. . . . In my hockey career, obviously it's the high point. But as far as my life goes . . . well, it's not like the days my kids were born. . . . Besides, if you were going to have one moment define you in the public consciousness, wouldn't you want it to be a moment just like that?"

Business Wire: Applications to SMG skyrocket

The School of Management continues to see an unprecedented increase in the number of students applying to its MBA programs, with a 153 percent increase in domestic applications, reports the January 30 Business Wire. No other business school around the country has reported domestic applications increasing more than 150 percent. "It's very exciting that students across America are increasingly attracted to our faculty and the quality of our offerings," says Louis Lataif, an SMG professor and dean of the school. "The numbers are overwhelming. Students seems to recognize that our MS-MBA innovation is designed as 'the next generation MBA' -- for those who genuinely aspire to leadership positions in business." Recently, SMG's Executive MBA Program was ranked best in New England and in the top 30 internationally by both BusinessWeek and The Financial Times. The September 2001 MIS Quarterly ranked the information systems faculty and program at SMG among the 10 best in the country.

8 February 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations