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East Brunswick resident Natalia Bogataia loves to travel but has been grounded for the last few years by urinary incontinence. Now, after surgery, she’s looking forward to a vacation to her native Moldova and many more adventures. Natalia, 50, began experiencing pelvic pain and urinary leakage five years ago. [...]
When Mildred Grace, 72, had an EKG as a safeguard before a scheduled surgery, it signaled that she may have a cardiac issue. At the advice of a friend, she contacted the Gloria Saker Women’s Heart Program at CentraState—where she learned that despite not having any symptoms, she had [...]
Unbearable, debilitating, and disabling are just some of the ways that Krisda Abene, 43, used to describe her menstrual periods. The mother of three from Jamesburg began suffering from painful periods in her 20s, but it was after she had her third child at age 27 that her symptoms [...]
Linda Chiarella, a mother of three from Jackson, is living proof of how far science and medicine have come in fighting cancer. Diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer four years ago, her scans are now essentially normal. Interestingly, Linda’s story began when her dog Holly, a Brittany, kept pawing [...]
You could say that MaryAnn Horowitz used to be a different person. At age 64, she was struggling with high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, was pre-diabetic, had little energy, felt trapped in a relationship that wasn’t working, and was more than 100 pounds overweight. “I was scared,” says [...]
Listen to Kelly talk about her amazing transformation after robotic gastric sleeve surgery. To learn more about weight loss surgery options at CentraState, visit our weight loss surgery page.
Feeling in the peak of health, 65-year-old Louise Cassar of Jackson visited her primary care physician in early February 2013 for her annual physical exam. To her surprise, the electrocardiogram (EKG), a routine part of the exam, revealed a slight abnormality. Despite Louise having had no symptoms that would [...]
Vicky Vydra, a 37-year-old mother of two from Marlboro, was an avid runner, skier, and scuba diver. When she developed a persistent headache, she was shocked that tests revealed she had a hole in her heart. After four weeks of debilitating headaches, Vicky visited her primary care physician, who [...]
Melissa Vella says her symptoms caused by uterine fibroids became so bad last fall that she constantly felt as if she were several months pregnant. “I was always tired, I had to urinate frequently, and even my abdomen was sticking out like I was pregnant,” says Melissa, a 46-year-old [...]
After 52-year-old Melissa Rizzitello of Lakewood spoke with a colleague who’d undergone bariatric surgery, she decided it was time to set up an appointment. After a careful evaluation, Ragui Sadek, MD, FACS, recommended gastric sleeve surgery. Melissa had considered bariatric surgery for several years. Having worked as a counselor [...]
