By Christine Woodside Melanie Stengel Photo. As the summer’s heat sets in, tailpipe emissions are rising with more vehicles on our highways. For the 29% of Connecticut adults who live with obesity, summer brings a…
By Steve Hamm Steve Hamm Photo. Dr. Joseph Tagliarini is operating his dental office at nearly full staff and hopes that a new generation COVID test will be developed that will give results on the…
By Cara Rosner In states where Medicaid was expanded under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), women are more likely to receive breast cancer diagnoses at an early stage, compared with women in other states, new…
By Elizabeth Heubeck Earlier this year, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) examination of death certificates in the U.S. showed a sharp rise in alcohol-related deaths between 1999 and 2017. Connecticut mirrored those numbers, and…
By Susan Jaffe Melanie Stengel Photo. Jay Katz, administrator, Leeway nursing facility in New Haven. The coronavirus has decimated many of the nation’s nursing homes, where elderly, chronically ill residents account for 64% of Connecticut’s…
By Sujata Srinivasan Tameeka Coleman and six of her children lived on the streets before moving into a shelter in Fairfield. “We were together, so it was bearable,” said Coleman, 38. The hardest part was…
By Kate Farrish Vape manufacturers have long been accused of marketing to teens with flavors like mango and cotton candy. Now vaping opponents say vape manufacturers are exploiting the coronavirus with face mask and hand…
By Cara Rosner Families with loved ones in nursing homes–unable to visit while getting frustratingly sparse information about them–have found a champion in Mairead Painter. Painter, the state’s long term care ombudsman, who works for…
By Bonnie Phillips Nursing homes inspected for infection-control practices during the pandemic revealed deficiencies, including failure to separate COVID-positive residents from residents who do not have the virus, improper use or no use of personal…
By Peggy McCarthy Melanie Stengel Photo. Weeks into the pandemic, people wait outside the 164 Wilson Food Pantry to receive food. The pantry is part of the Wilson Memorial Church of God in Christ, Stamford….
By Cara Rosner The state has fined six nursing homes for violations that jeopardized residents’ safety, including an incident in which resident with Alzheimer’s was found dead outside a facility in Wallingford. The facilities were…
By Carol Leonetti Dannhauser Stamford Hospital is treating most of its critically ill coronavirus patients with blood plasma from people who have recovered, after stunning turnarounds in several patients who were gravely ill. “We started…
By Steve Hamm Melanie Stengel Photo. A woman waits to enter the testing walk-up site at Chapel and Day streets, run by Dr. Steven Murphy of Greenwich. Leslie Radcliffe looks ahead to the planned reopening…
By Sujata Srinivasan Weeks into staying home from preschool, Betty, 4, threw herself on the floor and had a screaming meltdown. She had had a Zoom meeting with her class earlier that day, and every…
By Cara Rosner As cases of COVID-19 surged throughout Connecticut and the nation, “a perfect storm” of circumstances rendered nursing homes unable to handle the crisis, hastening the virus’ spread and deaths, experts say. “It’s…
By Lisa Backus The state Medical Examining Board disciplined two physicians with $5,000 fines for failing to adequately inform and monitor patients while prescribing opioids or anti-anxiety medications. Dr. Michael Kelly, of Salisbury, was issued…
By Lisa Backus For the past month or so, Leikish Nails has engaged in an elaborate ritual the minute she gets home from her shift at Touchpoints at Manchester, a skilled nursing facility that has…
By Kate Farrish iStock photo The pandemic is exposing health disparities that were generations in the making. Soon after Minerva Cuapio, a 48-year-old Mexican immigrant who lives in New Haven, was laid off from her…
By Lisa Backus 20 hours ago RecommendTweet EmailPrintMore The sleepy town of Colebrook has no traffic lights, no police department, no public sewer or water system and no confirmed cases of COVID-19. “Knock on wood,”…
By Cara Rosner The COVID-19 pandemic will likely result in a “huge paradigm shift” toward in-home dialysis treatments in the future, experts predict. Home “is the safest place for them to be,” said Dr. Holly…