Patient Stories

“You know when you get a ‘brain freeze’ from eating ice cream too fast? That’s what it felt like,” says Kelly Olivo. The 55-year-old mother of four lives in the hamlet of Slate Hill, about 75 miles northwest of New York City, and life was good — she...
When she’s on assignment, Maddie Kachurak is usually moving nonstop. The 25-year-old wardrobe stylist travels around New York and the world to work on photo shoots for advertising campaigns — sourcing clothing, developing creative concepts, and...
You may have seen Ramit Malhotra on TV or on social media lately. The healthy 28-year-old suffered an acute ischemic stroke three months before his planned wedding, but he was fortunate enough to be brought quickly to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens....
Jarrod San Angel, 45, of Long Island City, Queens, is a senior academic advisor in student advising services at LaGuardia Community College and has a rich, full life: he loves to travel and sample new cuisines, write music, and attend concerts. Yet...
Tovah Ehrlich was 24 years old, feeling fine, and working as a receptionist as she began her last year at Queens College. In the home stretch of earning her degree, Tovah spent her free time painting, reading, or hanging out with friends — until...
When Shanon Lajoie moved to New Jersey in 2020, it was her third state in ten years. Shanon’s career had taken her from Connecticut to both coasts of Florida to New Jersey, with one constant and unwanted companion: the whooshing in her ears caused...
Chaniya Wigfall, 20, is a full-time student in Syracuse, New York. An aspiring microbiologist originally from Harlem, New York, she recently finished up a summer internship at a lab in Binghamton. In her spare time, she jokes, “I like crocheting,...
At first, Lexi Miller thought her ear was just clogged with water. The 28-year-old account manager from Mahwah, New Jersey, tried hopping on one leg in hopes of dislodging it, but the whooshing sound didn’t go away. It was a curious annoyance, to be...
Cali Halperin was just 16 years old during the summer of 2016, when she got a headache that wouldn’t go away. A normally healthy and active high school student from New York City, she didn’t know what to do about it except take ibuprofen and hope it...

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