News

CT Insider
By Andy Tsubasa
June 4, 2023

TRUMBULL — Nearly two decades after a hockey accident led to a torn neck artery and subsequent stroke, a town resident is a leading volunteer helping others to overcome their own brain injuries.

Last month, Garrett Mendez, 36, received the Hamden Regional Chamber of Commerce's "Healthcare Warrior Award" for his volunteer work at the Gaylord Specialty Healthcare hospital in Wallingford. 

Mendez suffered the brain-stem stroke in 2005, days after colliding head-first with the boards while playing in a junior hockey game in Springfield, Mass.

Hartford Courant
By Pamela McLoughlin
June 6, 2023

Margaret “Meg” Moore can’t walk, stand or tend to activities of daily living on her own and she relies on an assistive device for communication.

Yet, the 26-year-old from Middlebury has already accomplished more than many people will in a lifetime – and she keeps adding to the list.

“My positive attitude can definitely be attributed to my parents,” Moore wrote in an email. “My mother and my late father approached my life with a disability with a very positive outlook right from the beginning.”

Becker's Hospital Review
By Bari Faye Dean
June 2, 2023

Executives looking for a way to enhance their own leadership style need look no further than Apple TV's Ted Lasso. Disguised as a show about a British football team, the series just might be a master class in leadership and management that could up any healthcare C-suite member's game

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16 Hospital executives offer their lessons: 

Lesson 7: Everyone differs from everyone else.

Sonja LaBarbera. President and CEO at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare (Wallingford, Conn.)

News 12 Connecticut
By Marissa Alter
May 25, 2023

ess Branson, of Westport, had a busy career and an active social life. But in the spring of 2021, Branson's life "went from 60 to zero in a heartbeat" when she became unable to move.

It all began with a stomach bug. "Over time, I started to get numbness and tingling in my hands and my feet," Branson told News 12. She felt weak and lost sensation in her limbs, but despite numerous doctor and emergency room visits, Branson said she couldn't get any answers until she became paralyzed from the shoulders down.

"It felt surreal. I would look at my feet and say, 'Move,' and try and step and I could not move them or advance them forward.

News Channel 8
By Alyssa Taglia
May 24, 2023

CHESHIRE, Conn. (WTNH) — The difference between just living and feeling alive and enjoying life is what a local nonprofit is doing to help people with long-term impairments from any injury or chronic condition get back to a meaningful life.

Exercise for Life aims for lifelong wellness.

News Channel 8
By Lisa Carberg
May 23, 2023

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Reporter Lasalle Blanks covered Waterbury for News 8 like no one else.

With total passion and enthusiasm for telling stories, he also had a special way of highlighting the city’s youth doing great things. But, one day in 2021, Blank’s life changed forever.

“I couldn’t put any pressure on my left side, so I rolled over on my right and got out of bed, and when I tried to stand I literally started going like this,” Blanks said. “When you have a stroke, you don’t just collapse.”

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.