{"id":149181,"date":"2026-05-05T22:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149181"},"modified":"2026-05-05T22:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T02:09:49","slug":"visit-to-the-isaacman-family-st-lukes-childrens-er-proved-pivotal-to-berks-county-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=149181","title":{"rendered":"Visit to The Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER Proved Pivotal to Berks County Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Alyssa Bogert and her daughter, Cora.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When Alyssa Bogert\u2019s daughter, Cora, began experiencing fever and abdominal pain in early 2025, she initially assumed it was a common childhood illness. Although there was a closer emergency room to their home in Berks County, Alyssa chose to bring her to the Isaacman Family St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s ER in Bethlehem\u2014a decision that would prove lifesaving. At the time, Cora was 2 years old.<\/p>\n

Eric Eustice, DO, an emergency room specialist, was on duty at the Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER, which is in the St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital. From the outset, Alyssa felt their concerns were taken seriously. Dr. Eustice listened carefully, asked thoughtful questions, and chose to pursue additional testing to rule out more serious conditions, she says. That decision led to a CT scan, which revealed cancer \u2013 stage 4 neuroblastoma. \u201cWe were expecting him to come in and say that her appendix had to come out, but he instead said what no parent wants to hear,\u201d Alyssa recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that moment, everything changed. Cora was quickly transferred for specialized care, and now at 3 years old, Cora is doing well thanks to her treatment. Her family remains hopeful for the future.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Alyssa firmly believes that the attentiveness and persistence of the Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER team saved her daughter\u2019s life. She credits the Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER not only for its clinical expertise, but also for the staff\u2019s compassion and willingness to listen\u2014qualities that made all the difference during an uncertain and frightening time. \u201cWhen Dr. Eustice told us what the CT scan showed, he delivered the news so sensitively and caringly. It was like he wasn\u2019t a doctor at that moment but just a person who was here to help us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Alyssa remains deeply grateful for the care her daughter received and emphasizes the importance of trusting parental instincts. She also highlights the value of having access to such high-quality pediatric emergency care, even if it means going a little farther from home.<\/p>\n

The experience left a lasting impression on the Bogert family. Without the expert care that the Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER provided Cora, Alyssa says, \u201cwe still might not have her.\u201d<\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n

The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 550+ residents and fellows.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke\u2019s #1 \u2013 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic, two of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions \u2013 as the nation\u2019s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience. This objective recognition, based on public data reported to the government, reaffirms St. Luke\u2019s preeminent position as THE BEST OF THE BEST among the most respected health care systems in the United States.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A\u2019s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured Image: Alyssa Bogert and her daughter, Cora. When Alyssa Bogert\u2019s daughter, Cora, began experiencing fever and abdominal pain in early 2025, she initially assumed it was a common childhood … Continue reading Visit to The Isaacman Family St. Luke’s Children’s ER Proved Pivotal to Berks County Family<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bogart.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149183,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149181\/revisions\/149183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}