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 [...]
That optimism came from a 24-year-old woman who just the year previously had her life turned upside down by a stroke. Now, more than two years later, Alex's positivity has only grown as she continues to make remarkable progress in her recovery. In December 2012, Alex was just getting [...]
Catherine Zalewski knew right away that she was having a stroke. She just wasn’t able to tell anyone around her. Catherine, who was Miss New Jersey in 2011, was working at her gym as a personal trainer on the morning of July 30 when she suddenly began feeling “very strange,” [...]
Lydia Arana, 79, is a soft-spoken woman, living with Parkinson’s disease but not willing to let it keep her down. The Matawan resident was diagnosed with the degenerative neurological disease in 2007 and has lived with fluctuating levels of intense tremors for years, but last year she started the [...]
Gina Barnett was living in extreme pain. Her pelvic area felt so heavy that she could barely walk, forcing the 52-year-old Freehold resident to give up exercise, singing, and just about every other activity she loved. “I was constantly uncomfortable,” says Gina, describing unbearable pressure and pain that extended [...]
Though Howell resident Heather Cooper had once been an active, outgoing person, her symptoms from early onset Parkinson’s disease began five years ago and got progressively worse. “I’d always been very adventurous and athletic and had even worked as a yoga instructor and at a ski resort managing a lodge, [...]
