Our lives are filled with many decisions every day, some more crucial and long-lasting than others. The decision to seek immediate medical attention if you or someone you are with might be having a heart attack can actually save a life. (more…)
All Posts in Category: Patient Stories
Striking the Right Chord
Franklin Henry Jr. is not the type of person who likes to ask for help. Yet when his world was reduced to the space between his bed and his chair—and even that small distance made him struggle to catch his breath— he realized he could no longer handle his health problems on his own. (more…)
A Very Hip Grandmother
Barbara Dubow, a registered professional nurse, worked in the health-care field for 41 years. She is well known in the Ithaca community as the former school nurse at Boynton Middle School and as a skilled caregiver at both Cayuga Medical Center and Surgicare. Dubow, now 63 and recently retired from nursing for the second time, is busier than ever in her role as “Granna” to three active young grandchildren. When her precious young charges visit, Dubow’s time is taken up with rousing rounds of kickball in the backyard, climbing up and down steps at the lake for fishing with the boys, and playing on the floor with her ten-month-old granddaughter. Nine months ago, however, this kind of activity would simply not have been feasible. (more…)
Losing to Win
On cool days busy paralegal Shelley Love grabs her iPod and hoofs it up the steep Buffalo Street hill in about ten minutes from her downtown Ithaca office. Then she. circles back down the winding Cascadilla Gorge Trail for a total distance of 1.36 miles up and down hilly, twisting terrain. She does this in a little more than thirty minutes, usually during her lunch break. (more…)
Lost and Found
Noelle Bartolis, 45, just celebrated the second anniversary of her weight-loss surgery. Over the past two years she has lost 140 pounds, and in the process she has found a healthy, active lifestyle that she can enjoy now and into the future. As proof, in September 2013, a year and two months after her surgery, Bartolis climbed over 1,000 feet of steep, rocky terrain with her sister Alison, to reach the summit of Stone Mountain in Stone Mountain, Georgia. This event marked the beginning of a new chapter in her life, one that includes vigorous activity and adventures that would not have been possible before. (more…)
Help Along the Way
Antoinette Di Ciaccio, 49, has many interests. She became curious about wine after moving to Schuyler County in 1997 and living among lush hillsides covered with grapevines. (more…)
An Early Arrival
When we met the Jawo family to talk about Rosemarie’s birth, they were preparing to move from Ithaca to Durham, North Carolina, to be closer to family. Lori Bruce-Jawo is well known to Ithaca as the Ithaca City School District’s former chief excellence officer. Her husband, Anthony Jawo, has been staying home with Rosemarie, who is clearly thriving under his care. At nine months old she weighed eighteen pounds and was twenty-eight inches tall, which put her right on target for her age. (more…)
Mystery Solved, Pain Resolved
Madison Lodge is an energetic 16-year-old who never stops moving. Her whirlwind sports schedule starts each August with swim practice, shifts to basketball in November, and ends with her favorite—softball—in March.
The Right Place at the Right Time
Ed Hartz, eighty-two, is a very familiar face around town. He lived in Ithaca for many years while his children were growing up, and although he has moved south to warmer climes, he and his wife, Judy, return every summer to a cottage on the lake, south of Aurora. While his summers are typically busy with family events, golf, and other outdoor activities, the summer of 2013 held other things in store. (more…)
One Happy Family
Marian and Ben Saks, DO, both grew up in Schuyler County. Her parents live two miles down the road in Hector and several of his family members live in the area as well, including his dad, Dr. William Saks, a beloved ob-gyn physician recently retired from Schuyler Hospital, where Ben now practices internal medicine. “Ours was an arranged marriage,” Ben says, laughing. “My sister and Marian’s cousins decided we should end up together.” And it came to pass that Marian and Ben were married in 2010. (more…)