Esteemed Pediatric Surgeon Joins The Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital

Dr. Lee's expertise is in neonatal surgery, thoracic surgery, hepatobiliary and GI surgery, and minimally invasive surgery. He specializes in treating children with solid tumors, short gut syndrome, feeding difficulties and pectus excavatum - a condition that is often detected shortly after birth where the breastbone sinks into the chest cavity, potentially causing issues with breathing and lung function.

"I'm extremely proud to welcome Dr. Lee to Saint Peter's pediatric surgical team," said Leslie D. Hirsch, FACHE, president and CEO of Saint Peter's Healthcare System. "Dr. Lee's arrival to Saint Peter's expands our pediatric surgical capabilities, allowing more families and their children greater access to complex surgical care close to home. Our pediatric surgeonsoffer comprehensive surgical care to treat common pediatric ailments, ranging from appendicitis and hernias to rare conditions, thereby offering families sophisticated surgical care for their children without having to travel out of state to larger medical centers."

Dr. Lee, who has a large volume of published and peer reviewed articles, completed his undergraduate education at Columbia University and attended medical school at The State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine in New York. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and completed a transplant surgery fellowship at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania before his pediatric surgery residency at The Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo at The State University of New York. After completing his pediatric surgery residency, Dr. Lee became an attending surgeon at The Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo and consultant pediatric surgeon for Buffalo's Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He then went on to become an attending pediatric surgeon at the University of Rochester's Golisano Children's Hospital in New York and served as an assistant professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has served on the medical staffs of a number of New Jersey hospitals.

The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's also recently welcomed board certified pediatric surgeon Michael LaQuaglia, MD. Dr. LaQuaglia specializes in pediatric cancer surgery and is the author of multiple peer-reviewed journals especially on the topic of neuroblastoma. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medical School and later a Master of Science in Population Health Sciences, with a track in biostatistics and data science from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York. His training includes a general surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein University in New York and three fellowships, one in pediatric surgical critical care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, followed by another in pediatric surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and most recently a pediatric surgery fellowship at Saint Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

For additional information about pediatric surgical services at The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's University Hospital, visit saintpetershcs.com/childrenshospital or call 732.565.KIDS [5437].

About The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's University Hospital
The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's University Hospital is a state-designated acute care children's hospital and regional perinatal center sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen. The Children's Hospital at Saint Peter's provides families with access to a full range of pediatric specialties, including a nationally renowned Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Department, adolescent medicine, cancer care, diabetes, orthopedics, surgery, developmental pediatrics, gastroenterology, allergy and immunology, infectious disease medicine, cardiology, nephrology, neurology, pediatric intensive care, pulmonary/sleep medicine, audiology and physical therapy. Other programs and services include Medical Genetics and Genomic Medicine, which counsels, tests and treats children with rare diseases; the Craniofacial and Neurosurgical Center, which offers corrective surgery and multidisciplinary support for children born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities; the Dorothy B. Hersh Regional Child Protection Center, a state-designated regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center for child abuse prevention; and the Center for Diabetes Self-Management and Education, which diagnoses and treats children with diabetes and other endocrine disorders.

Saint Peter's has received Perinatal Care Advanced Certification and Level IV Maternal Levels of Care Verification from the Joint Commission and the Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses for its Neonatal Intensive Care and Pediatric Intensive Care units. The Dorothy B. Hersh Pediatric Emergency Department is the only pediatric emergency department in New Jersey to earn the Lantern Award (2022-2024) from the Emergency Nurses Association.