Stories of healing and recovery.
Pooja Charaniya was 23 weeks pregnant when she got the terrifying news that she had tested positive for COVID-19. After her symptoms worsened she was transferred to the ICU at Texas Health Fort Worth where she was intubated...
He’s jumped out of planes while serving his country. He’s apprehended criminals to protect his community as a member of an elite policing team. He’s walked countless miles patrolling his community to keep it safe...
There’s no good time for a health crisis, and a pandemic only serves to add to the anxiety and frustration. Just ask Stephanie Bland. When the 51-year-old China Spring, Texas resident began experiencing shooting pain in her neck and loss of feeling in her left arm and fingers early this year, she became nearly bedridden...
Being a nurse herself, Grace had a plan for how she wanted delivery day to go. When plans changed thanks to COVID-19, Grace was forced to put her trust in the Labor & Delivery team at Texas Health Alliance...
Rikke Gutierrez was well into her first pregnancy and making preparations for the arrival of baby Ivy when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Suddenly, she was faced with attending her prenatal visits by herself...
He would cling to the side of his tow truck each step of the way as he walked from the cab to the end of his truck, where he would load a car that needed a lift. Joe knew he had to get help when the pain got even worse over a six-month period...
As a professional football player, Claudy Mathieu, 27, got an adrenaline rush stiff-arming offensive lineman, attacking passers and sacking quarterbacks. But all the agility and speed Mathieu used on the field were no match against his worst opponent – cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) – a severe form of stroke...
Being new to the area and searching for a local OB/GYN would be enough to cause anxiety for any mom-to-be. Add to it a pandemic and high-risk pregnancy, and Fralonda Aubrey found herself in the making of a truly stressful pregnancy...
Emperatriz Terrientes needed to see her doctor, but with the rise of coronavirus and the uncertainty of the global pandemic, she did not want to leave her house and potentially expose herself or her family to COVID-19....
For more than a month, Audrey Smith had been dealing with the stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Resuming yoga once again, it was Audrey's new form of stress relief. She never imagined that while stretching, she'd endure not one but two carotid artery dissections in her neck. That led to severe strokes and Audrey's harrowing fight for her life...
Her birthing classes had been canceled. Her tour of the hospital had been canceled. Her family from Idaho couldn’t come for the delivery. Not only was Faith Rheiner disappointed that she and her husband were missing out on these parents-to-be milestones, but her anxiety was also running high because the coronavirus pandemic was predicted to peak right about the time of her baby’s arrival...
Last month should have been a celebration highlighting 21 years of marriage, but for Matthew and Margaret Bell, the COVID-19 pandemic did more than cancel anniversary plans in Iceland – it nearly shattered their lives when Matthew became acutely ill with COVID-19...
Born with Down syndrome, Luis Pamones is no stranger to overcoming obstacles. But when he was rushed to the hospital on May 1 after testing positive for COVID-19, his greatest challenge was yet to come as he fought to survive the potentially deadly disease....
Darlene Jackson was pulling weeds in her garden when she suddenly felt like a tree limb had hit her head. She soon learned that what she thought was a strange experience was actually a lifesaving event...
Pat Kidd's spunky attitude and infectious smile suddenly began to wane. If Kidd walked just a few steps, she was out of breath. It was a completely foreign feeling that the 81-year-old knew she needed to address...
Giving birth during a pandemic may sound like a scary thing. And, in some ways it could be. But Madelyn Collins found the experience of delivering her second daughter admist COVID-19...
Heart surgery last year brought promise of a more active lifestyle for 76-year-old Janice Kelly. But being sedentary during the recovery left Janice with pain in her hip. The resulting discomfort led Janice to the outpatient rehabilitation program at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital. The hospital is one she and her husband have trusted for more than 50 years. This time was no different, except for it being in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic...
Michael Hoffman, one of the most critically ill COVID-19 patients treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas since the pandemic began, did something today that seemed like an impossibility two months ago...
As 42-year-old Shedrick Ross rested in bed on a warm April morning, he received an important phone call – a message of hope and a chance at a better quality of life. There was a kidney waiting for him. But instead of joy and relief,...
As thousands of health care workers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area began fighting the novel coronavirus early this year, Mike Clark was in the midst of his own battle against a tough opponent. Diagnosed with a weak abdominal wall in early 2019, Mike’s primary care doctor had prepared him for the possibility of having to deal with an inguinal hernia in the future...
It was a normal Saturday at Dr. Bob Jing’s dental office, bustling with employees and patients. Out of nowhere, the 49-year-old Jing began slurring his words. Then, all feeling escaped the right side of his foot. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor. But thanks to the quick actions of the dentist’s employees, emergency responders and caregivers at Texas Health Fort Worth, Jing survived what turned out to be a major stroke...
They were inseparable for decades, until COVID-19 tore Lorenzo and Elba Banales away from each other. But the Dallas couple were together again as they were wheeled out of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, well enough to go home...
Debra Hardy, a teacher with three decades of experience, loves to share her passion for science with her students. The 60-year-old resident of Krum leads her students through hands-on experiments, helping concepts come to life in her classroom. But when back pain made it extremely difficult for Debra to teach the way she most enjoyed, she leaned on science through the medical expertise she found at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton...
The lobby was filled with cheers as a patient walked out of the hospital for the first time since he tested positive for COVID-19 more than a month prior. Willy Merlin-Montoya, 25, was discharged after spending 42 days at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth...
After working the night shift at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, cardiac nurse, Don Villaflor, hit the gym for an hour. When he arrived home after the gym and started feeling pain in his upper chest, he knew something wasn’t right...
Jenny and Chris Marr expected to hear one tiny heartbeat when they went for their first OB-GYN appointment late last year. Instead, they eventually heard four and started their journey to becoming the parents of natural, identical quadruplets — a type of instant family that occurs in only one in 11 million births...
A tremor, slowed movement, rigid muscles, impaired posture or balance — all are characteristic signs of Parkinson’s disease. But all of those telltale symptoms simply melted away once classically-trained concert pianist Lucien Leinfelder’s fingers hit the piano keys. Doctors diagnosed Leinfelder with Parkinson’s disease at age 60 and told him that he would never be able to play again...
Larry Hollingsworth is an outgoing man. He has a demanding business as a Realtor® in Frisco, a career that keeps Larry going up to 80 hours a week. The small amount of personal time Larry has is spent working with the youth at his church. He is the kind of gentleman that many would say is the backbone of his community. But crippling pain in Larry’s own back caused all of his involvements to almost come to a halt...
David Turner was successfully treated for COVID-19 at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford. His son, Myles Turner, a Bedford, native and NBA basketball player for the Indiana Pacers recently made a $50,000 donation in honor of his father to directly support the COVID-19 Response Fund, which benefits the immediate needs of front-line caregivers at the hospital...
When Carrie Hines heard the banging on her door on the morning of April 29, she assumed her husband, David, was back from his morning run and playing a joke on her. But the Allen man had never even made it to his destination of Celebration Park...
An active young father, Justin Vickery didn’t have the time or the desire to continue to be limited by his degenerative discs any longer. With three significant surgeries between the ages of 19 and 26 years old, Justin was growing weary of repeated failed procedures yielding minimal results...
If you’re like millions of first-time parents, you’ve most likely read or been gifted the perennially popular book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. But none of the baby books could’ve possibly predicted or prepared first-time moms Jessica and Heather for what’s going on right now. After all, a baby’s birth isn’t something that can be postponed or rescheduled...
When Mark Johnson woke up one morning, he didn’t anticipate that his life would nearly come to an end that day. Thanks to a quick-thinking firefighter, a new piece of equipment aptly nicknamed "The Thumper," and the team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Allen, Mark has gained a new lease on life...
For more than 16 years, Duane Mauldin sold operating room medical devices. But one day, he ended up in the operating room for a much more personal reason — fighting for his life after suffering three strokes in less than two hours. The once vibrant medical vendor could no longer talk, and the entire right side of his body was paralyzed. Advanced care would be needed — and quickly — to offer him the best chance of survival...
It was a tightness in his chest that just wouldn’t go away – and it was the only sign of a journey one man did not anticipate he would take...
He maneuvered Army tanks through East Germany in the Cold War era of the 1960s. He battled cancer. He fought a heart attack, and kept moving forward. Nothing, it seemed, could crush Lyn Dukette's spirit. But a large tumor — a schwannoma, a type of nerve tumor — threatened to bring this veteran's march to a grinding halt...
Dennis Heerwagen, 65, knew that hospitals were waging war with a virus that was causing patients respiratory distress and sometimes death. He had seen the news and knew that others out there needed help. The thought of taking any care away from them by going to the emergency room plagued him. But on this day, Dennis also needed help...
George Humphrey, a sales representative, was calling on customers in the Fort Worth area when he encountered construction on the highway in Cleburne and slowed down as instructed. A collision knocked him out cold, and he learned when he woke up that his vehicle had been hit by a driver doing 70 mph. A good Samaritan, a former U.S. Army medic, stopped to help Humphrey and immediately assessed that his back was broken...
Michael Williams raises white-tail deer for legalized hunting, and has worked as a high school wrestling coach and a bull rider. An accident with one of his deer left him riddled with back pain...
Running and walking used to be smooth sailing for Navy veteran, Donald. But when simply walking five minutes in his house created a painful, burning sensation in his legs, he knew he needed to do something about it...