News

13NewsNow.com
By David Alan
May 2, 2023

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — For many years Lasalle Blanks greeted our Daybreak viewers every morning on 13News Now. He's been called a one-man pep rally, and hype man for anyone struggling through difficult times. 

But a few years after he left us to report the news in his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, Sal had a massive stroke. 

NBC Connecticut News
April 27, 2023

The Gaylord Wolfpack, Connecticut’s only sled hockey team, took home the national championship at USA Hockey’s Disabled Hockey Fest.

WTNH News Channel 8
By Ellie Stamp
April 19, 2023

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – The UConn men’s basketball team and the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team are not the state’s only national champions – Connecticut’s only sled hockey team just brought in the national title over the weekend.

The Gaylord Wolfpack won the 2023 Adult Tier II Championship at the USA Hockey Disabled Hockey Festival in St. Louis, Missouri against New Hampshire.

The state champions beat teams from California, Illinois, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Missouri and New Hampshire.

The Day
By Peter Huoppi
April 2, 2023

Andrew Pisano of Colchester suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle crash, and travels to Wallingford each week for physical, speech and occupational therapies. Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, where he does his rehab, is sharing Pisano's story during Brain Injury Awareness Month in hopes that it will convince more motorcyclists to wear a helmet.

NBC Connecticut News
By Michael Fuller
March 28, 2023

A retired Hamden firefighter is on the mend after suffering a stroke and now he hopes to use his story to inspire anyone else who is going through a challenging time.

NBC Connecticut first met Paul Turner in January when the House of Heroes organization and Hamden Fire Department came together to build a ramp outside of his home after he suffered a terrible medical scare.

Months later, we met back up with the 21-year veteran to discuss his road to rehabilitation and his message for anyone facing dark days.

Healthline
By John Loeppky
March 24, 2023

This week, renowned playwright and producer Aaron Sorkin revealed that he had a stroke late last year.

In an article from the New York Times, Sorkin has shared that his sense of identity, his own perception of his health, and his approach to life have all been affected—alongside the initial slurring of speech and physical barriers that affected him during his recovery.

“There was a minute when I was concerned that I was never going to be able to write again,” he told the New York Times.

While Sorkin may be a high-profile example of a stroke survivor, the number of people having a stroke equates to one every 40 seconds in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source

Stroke Rehab Times
March 13, 2023

Here, in the final part of our three-part series on young stroke survivor Garrett Mendez, Dr Alyse Sicklick shares with SR Times her experience of treating  younger stroke patients.

SRT: What are the key elements that elevate a younger person’s risk of stroke?
AS: “Many of the risk factors that can affect an older person’s stroke risk – high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac abnormalities, smoking, and drinking – can be major risk factors in younger people as well. There are many additional lifestyle and hereditary causes that can affect a younger person’s stroke risk, including connective tissue diseases, coagulation abnormalities, and even illicit drug usage.”

News 12 The Bronx
By Marissa Alter
March 16, 2023

George Kelakos, 66, of Greenwich has spent 40 years turning around businesses, bringing them back from disaster, as a lawyer and bankruptcy specialist. Now he's applying lessons learned in his career to his life.

"I'm doing my own turnaround. And in a turnaround, you don't look back and say, 'Woe is me.' You say, 'Ok, lessons that I learned, where am I now, and where do I want to go?'" Kelakos told News 12.

Newstimes
By Sanda Diamond Fox
March 12, 2023

BETHEL — For the most part, Rob Stowell's days working the cash register and unloading food from trucks at Trader Joe's in Danbury are pretty typical — with one exception. 

All day long, every day, he coughs. He's not sick — his cough is from having a severe case of COVID-19 in 2020, where he came close to death...

Stowell, a Bethel resident and former teacher, has long COVID, which is defined as COVID-19 symptoms lasting longer than one month, said Jerrold Kaplan, a physiatrist and medical director of outpatient and workers' compensation services at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in Wallingford.

Scientific Reports
By Stefanie Gaidos, Henry Hrdlicka & John Corbett 
Feb. 23, 2023

This feasibility study aimed to trial a Free Water Protocol (FWP) for patients with thin liquid dysphagia in the Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) setting. Patients with dysphagia are often prescribed thickened liquids to avoid or mitigate aspiration. While this clinical intervention can minimize the risk of aspiration pneumonia (PNA), it is generally not well received by patients. As such, the goal of this study was to determine if patients who knowingly aspirate thin liquids can safely tolerate thin liquid water, and if so, to what degree of benefit.