For nearly 40 years, Michael Connolly, a 61-year-old Old Bridge resident, had suffered from knee pain that first began after a lacrosse injury in college. His career didn’t help matters; he worked for 36 years as a motion picture, theatrical, and television teamster, driving a truck to move [...]
Dee Nemeth had rarely been sick in his life, so it was unusual when the 75-year-old Freehold resident began experiencing bloating last fall. After seeking care at a health clinic, he was sent to CentraState’s Emergency Department for a potential gall bladder issue. There, he was diagnosed with a [...]
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 [...]
At only 22 years old, Mariah Rodriguez’s lifelong battle with her weight had come to this: She struggled to walk from her car up to her attic bedroom, she was uncomfortable going out with friends, and she was on the verge of developing diabetes. Having had [...]
Old Bridge residents Betty and Bob Peterson, both 53, had spent their 35-year marriage doing virtually everything together. For many years, that included eating poorly, becoming obese, and developing significant health problems that often accompany excessive weight, including Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. “After years of putting our [...]
For about a year, Sandy Gordon of Colts Neck had labored breathing when performing tasks such as climbing stairs, and just thought it was part of the aging process. When her breathing didn’t improve, she visited Kenneth D. Barofsky, MD, board-certified internal medicine physician and on staff at CentraState and [...]
Rock Steady Boxing can help patients improve balance, strength, and agility. Ken Springer goes to the gym twice every week to box his enemy. But he’s not fighting against any ordinary opponent—this one is a degenerative movement disorder that causes a deterioration of motor skills, balance, speech, and sensory function. [...]
Before the program, Mark Herman was falling frequently. “He was very unsteady,” his wife, Barbara, recalls. “Frankly, it was very frightening.” Mark, a Jackson resident, had been living with Parkinson’s disease for the past four years, and his now 72-year-old body was having difficulty performing everyday tasks. His recurrent falls were [...]
For decades, Dr. Kohlberg had exercised regularly on a treadmill so he could stay fit for weekly tennis matches and annual ski trips with fellow CentraState physicians. But over the past year, worsening pain in his right knee prevented him from enjoying the sports he loved. Eventually, the pain [...]
Though Jersey City native Thomas Ryan, 58, had been living with diabetes for 30 years, he was faced with yet another health-related obstacle when he had to undergo amputation of four of the toes on his left foot at a hospital in Hoboken. A common side effect of diabetes, poor [...]
