Leech Tishman is proud to announce that longtime Partner Kenneth C. Foltz, Sr. recently founded the Post Intensive Care Syndrome Coalition, Inc. (“PICS Coalition”), a new survivor-led nonprofit organization dedicated to improving life after critical illness and supporting ICU survivors and their families.
The PICS Coalition officially launched on Saturday, September 26, 2026, in connection with Walk4PICS Pittsburgh, an international awareness initiative bringing together ICU survivors, family caregivers, healthcare professionals, rehabilitation specialists, and community supporters. Leech Tishman was proud to serve as a Diamond Sponsor of the Pittsburgh event.
For Foltz, who has been a Partner with Leech Tishman since joining the firm in 2007, the mission is deeply personal. An ICU and Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (“PICS”) survivor himself, Foltz serves as President of the PICS Coalition and has helped build the organization from his own experience navigating life following critical illness.
“We are incredibly proud of Ken’s resilience in navigating this life-changing experience and, even more so, his determination to turn a deeply personal struggle into an effort that can help thousands of other survivors and families,” said Pete Fuscaldo, Managing Partner of Leech Tishman. “Ken’s commitment to creating greater awareness, resources, and community for those facing life after critical illness is truly inspiring.”
“Surviving the ICU is often treated as the happy ending of the story, but for many of us it is the beginning of an entirely different struggle,” said Foltz. “The PICS Coalition was created so survivors and families know they are not alone, understand what they may be experiencing, and have access to resources and a community of survivors to help them move forward.”
Post-Intensive Care Syndrome describes new or worsening physical, cognitive, and mental health challenges that can occur following an ICU stay. Family members and caregivers may also experience related effects known as Post-Intensive Care Syndrome–Family (“PICS-F”). Through education, advocacy, peer support, and collaboration with the healthcare community, the PICS Coalition seeks to increase awareness of these conditions and help survivors and their families access resources and support after critical illness.
Foltz credits UPMC and the team at UPMC Mercy’s Critical Illness Recovery Center (“CIRC”) with playing an important role in both his own recovery and the development of the Coalition. The CIRC team helped Foltz better understand the challenges he was experiencing following his ICU stay and introduced him to the broader PICS community. UPMC Mercy is also supporting this year’s Walk4PICS Pittsburgh.
“A special thanks goes out to the team at the UPMC Mercy Critical Illness Recovery Center,” Foltz said. “The CIRC clinic was instrumental in helping me understand what was happening to me with my PICS challenges and introduced me to the PICS community. Learning about PICS and finding this community saved my life.”
Foltz’s work with the PICS Coalition also complements Leech Tishman’s growing commitment to the healthcare industry. The firm’s Healthcare Practice Group advises healthcare organizations, digital health platforms, healthcare technology companies, investors, providers, and other health-related businesses on the complex transactional, regulatory, compliance, privacy, and operational issues affecting healthcare delivery.
As organizations increasingly develop new resources, technologies, care models, and services for patients recovering from critical illness, Leech Tishman’s multidisciplinary Healthcare team is positioned to advise organizations serving the PICS community on issues ranging from business formation and strategic transactions to healthcare regulation, privacy, digital health, telehealth, reimbursement, and regulatory compliance.
About the PICS Coalition
The PICS Coalition is a survivor-founded and survivor-led nonprofit organization dedicated to improving life after critical illness. The Coalition works to increase awareness of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome and PICS-F, connect survivors and caregivers with education and support, promote collaboration with healthcare professionals, and help ensure that no one has to face life after the ICU alone. Learn more here: picscoalition.org
About Leech Tishman
Leech Tishman is a national, full-service law firm dedicated to assisting businesses, institutions, and individuals. Leech Tishman offers legal services in business restructuring & insolvency, construction, corporate matters, healthcare, intellectual property, labor & employment, litigation, real estate, and trusts & estates. In addition, the firm offers a wide range of legal services to clients in the aviation & aerospace, beauty & wellness, cannabis, data privacy & cybersecurity, energy & natural resources, entertainment & sports, and life sciences industries. Leech Tishman has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami/Fort Lauderdale, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sarasota, and Washington, D.C.