News

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.

Drew Pisano, 34, doesn’t remember anything about the accident that nearly killed him, but the clues left behind at the scene piece together the story of how his plans for a “quick ride” on a beautiful fall day changed in the blink of an eye. “I’ve been riding bikes my whole life,” Drew said. “Dirt bikes, quads, motorcycles, I love them all.” More than his passion, bikes are also Drew’s livelihood. His Colchester-based business MotoBarn sells, maintains, and services bikes of all kinds.

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.

Healthline
By John Loeppky
Feb. 23, 2023

Lower back pain is a common ailment that can drive people to take swift and sometimes invasive measures, like having surgery or taking opioids, in search of relief.

Now new research has found that there may be an ideal mix of non-opioid medication that can effectively treat lower back pain in many patients.

The new meta-analysis published this week in the Journal of Orthopaedic ResearchTrusted Source looked at data from 18 studies that contain data from 3,478 patients.

Rehab Stroke Time
By Andrew Nealen
Feb. 22, 2023

In the second part of a three-part series on young stroke survivor Garrett Mendez, who was only 19-years-old when he had a stroke, his mother Eileen Mendez shares her recollection of her son’s stroke and recovery.

Garrett’s stroke was caused by a head first hit into the boards during a hockey game. The hit occurred six days before he had the stroke. We were at that game. He was a freshman in college. Garrett played hockey since he was four and it was the worst hit I had ever seen. I thought he had broken his neck or was dead. Within a few minutes, he was moving his feet, he got up, was checked by the trainer who found no sign of concussion or anything else and he actually finished the game.