(Publisher’s Note: More than two years ago, LEDE News published this story while East Ohio Regional Hospital was being completely renovated in preparation for re-opening in February 2021. Bernie Albertini, the facility’s current COO and the architect of the new hospital, sat down to recall when big-time Hollywood came to Martins Ferry.)
It was late June 2009, and something seemed different at East Ohio Regional Hospital.
The medical facility at the end of 4th Street was more active than usual, but nothing had been reported by the local television stations or by the Martins Ferry Times Leader. Michelle Ross, then a 26-year-old resident of the oldest settlement in the state of Ohio, was known by her family and friends, but she was sworn to secrecy just as were the administrators of EORH.
Something very special, though, was about to take place.
“I was there at EORH, and I was working at the time as the assistant administrator,” the facility’s newly named Chief Operating Officer Bernie Albertini explained. “That is still the claim to fame for East Ohio Regional Hospital, and it was really a crazy time. There was a lot of security at the time, but it took place in Martins Ferry because the surrogate mother they had chosen was from this area, and this is where she wanted to give birth.
“The security was interesting to say the least,” he said. “What was really interesting is that Matthew Broderick would walk through the hospital with his ball cap, on and no one would recognize him. I know he enjoyed that, too, while he was visiting with his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, because that was something those two were really worried about. But it obviously worked out for them.”
Big Time in a Little City
Ohio County Chief Deputy Drage Flick was hired to be in charge of the couple’s security detail while in the Upper Ohio Valley.
Parker and Broderick were lodged in an Oglebay Cabin for about four days, and not one tucked away deep in the woods but instead right along a roadway near the Observatory. Flick also reported once his job was complete that the acting superstars were transported to and from EORH each day in a truck with an expired registration sticker.
“Best place to hide is in plain sight,” Flick explained. “And they were great. I didn’t know what to expect because you hear this and that about the superstars, but they just wanted to become parents, and it was obvious they cared about the surrogate very much.
“They didn’t want a bunch of attention, and that was very understandable, but they were really nice with all of the people that they did come into contact with,” the chief deputy recalled. “Once the babies were born, and they were able to take them home, we got them to the airport, and away they went.”
Twins!
Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick weighed 5 pounds and 11 ounces, and Tabitha Hodge Broderick weighed 6 pounds. Parker and Broderick also have a son, James Wilkie, who will turn 18 in October. The girls, of course, will be 12 this June.
“Sarah Jessica Parker walked into the hospital right down the main hallway, but after that the security would take her and her husband in and out of the hospital through a back door so they could avoid all of the paparazzi that figured out where the couple came for the birth,” Albertini said. “The local news people figured it out, too, because this is usually a pretty quiet corner of town, and it really wasn’t back then.”
East Ohio’s birthing center closed prior to the hospital’s closure last year because EORH had consolidated with the Ohio Valley Medical Center. Albertini explained a consultant’s study determined it would be fiscally responsible to move all women’s services to the OVMC campus, including births.
“But once we get to that point, our birthing center will reopen, and the people from this side of the Ohio River will be very happy because I have heard from a lot of people that it drives them nuts that either they had to be born in West Virginia, or that their kids were.
“It’s a part of the process right now, but hey, who knows what other famous people came here to have babies,” he said with a chuckle. “Being back here now, though, brings back so many memories, and I am very much looking forward to a lot of new ones in the future.”
