By Lori Riley
Hartford Courant
SEP 26, 2021
CHESHIRE — A CrossFit competition wasn’t on Jillian Harpin’s radar five years ago. Harpin hiked but was not someone who went to the gym at all.
But when Harpin, of Wethersfield, became paralyzed after losing her balance and falling three stories off a balcony on vacation in Mexico, she knew she had to keep up her strength in order to get around with her wheelchair.
So when she heard about a high-intensity exercise class called EX4L, or Exercise 4 Life, started by Gaylord Hospital physical therapists Kim Levesque and Philip Severio two years ago, she signed up.
This spring, Harpin, 29, who is paralyzed from the waist down, competed in a national CrossFit competition, which offered an adaptive version for the first time.
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Middletown Press
By Ginny Monk
Published September 26, 2021
Sonja LaBarbera, with a background in speech pathology, is the first clinician to hold the position of president and chief executive officer of Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in nearly 40 years. LaBarbera, 47, has been in the job since January 2019 and has worked in health care for a quarter-century.
In October 2020, under LaBarbera’s leadership, Gaylord opened the Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation.
LaBarbera, also the first woman to head Gaylord, serves on the board of directors of Gaylord Hospital/Gaylord Farm Association Inc., which oversees all the organization’s services. Recently, LaBarbera was named to the Hartford Business Journal 2020 list of Power 25 in Healthcare.
WALLINGFORD, CT. September 23, 2021 - The University of Connecticut School of Medicine announces the first and only Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Residency in Connecticut created in partnership with Hartford Hospital, Gaylord Hospital, and UConn Health. The joint program will have a tremendous impact on the health and quality of life of Connecticut residents as well as the aging national population by helping fill the need for additional PM&R physicians.
"This program is a testament to the quality and diversity of healthcare provided here in Connecticut," said Governor Ned Lamont. "Partnerships like this showcase the true collaborative spirit of our residents - particularly our young people. I continue to believe Connecticut is a great place to live and work, and full of...
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WTNH Channel 8
by: Rich Coppola
Posted: Sep 22, 2021
(WTNH) — A Florida COVID-19 patient was brought to Connecticut earlier this month for a life-saving treatment after his family reached out to 169 hospitals without success.
Susan Walker was running out of time. Her husband Robby was lying in a Florida hospital on a ventilator with COVID-19, pneumonia in both lungs.
“My mother-in-law was with me, and my daughter,” she said. “We went back to our hotel room and cried about it of course because we had felt like we had lost the battle.”
In reality, it was far from over.
Fox 61 News
Author: Jim Altman
Published: September 21, 2021
DANBURY, Conn. — It was a good day to be out on Candlewood Lake on Tuesday as a fishing tournament meant to support Connecticut’s servicemen and women returned after a year-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Disabled Veterans Fishing Tournament – which is put on by the Gaylord Hospital’s Sports Association, the Connecticut Bass Nation and the Mayor Steven Roy Andrews Fishing Outreach Program – made its triumphant return, giving disabled veterans a day out in the water for fishing and comradery.
The Day
By Brian Hallenbeck Day staff writer
Wallingford — Expert care and the latest technology are helping Brad Kerr walk again.
But the Groton mountain biker’s grit and optimism have been at least as important in his promising recovery from an April crash that injured his spinal cord, leaving him partially paralyzed, his prognosis uncertain.
Will he walk again? How about bike?
“I don’t see why I can’t,” Kerr, seated in a wheelchair, said during a recent interview here at Gaylord Hospital, a medical rehabilitation center that specializes in the treatment of patients with brain and spinal cord injuries, strokes and other serious conditions.
WALLINGFORD, CONNECTICUT, September 15, 2021 — Gaylord Specialty Healthcare will host an exclusive preview party on Thursday, October 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. to debut a new episode of the popular Public Broadcasting series “Travels & Traditions with Burt Wolf” which features the rehabilitation-focused healthcare system.
Titled “The Hospital of the Future,” the half-hour episode celebrates Gaylord’s 120-year history and unique, patient-centered care and clinical innovation through the first-hand perspective of its patients and staff.
Gaylord President and CEO Sonja LaBarbera explained that she is thrilled to share Gaylord’s unique “Think Possible” culture at the preview event and on the global stage.
“This feature is an opportunity for the world to see the...
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CTPost
By Colin McEnroe
April 20, 2021Updated: Aug. 25, 2021 9:52 p.m.
In September of 2020, The Significant Other turned ⬛. It was a milestone. Let’s leave it at that.
There was (and still is) a pandemic. I was, additionally, reeling from a horrible diagnosis rendered to The Son a few months prior.
But The Significant Daughter came up with a wonderful surprise. The S.O. had become a fan, through me, of the musical artist Jill Sobule. I discovered her music during the late 1990s. Article
NewHaven BIZ
By Maureen Lynch
June 22, 2021
In his popular show “Travels & Traditions with Burt Wolf,” the globe-trotting journalist has spotlighted topics such as cruising the rivers of Europe and whether success is due to nature or nurture.
Now he is spotlighting something really close to home: Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in Wallingford.
A production crew from the international public broadcasting series filmed an upcoming episode at Gaylord in June, and it will air to an international audience of millions this fall.
What prompted Wolf to feature Gaylord?
Wolf said a friend told him about the “spectacular” care he had received there, so Wolf decided he wanted to know more, even though he had never filmed a show about a hospital before.
NBC 30
AUGUST 20, 2021 10:04 PM
A Newington woman who became critically ill, postponing her sister’s wedding, was finally able to be Maid of Honor at that wedding, thanks to Gaylord Hospital. See Story