Ken Haas, a corrections officer and SWAT team lead with the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office in Southern Indiana, was training police recruits in 2020 when a demonstration resulted in a shoulder injury. Training recruits in handcuffing It was a normal day on the job for this now 54-year-old, but as one of the recruits attempted…
RaShaw Edelen faced a question from his uncle he didn’t know how to answer. RaShaw was excited to restore an old car, but his uncle asked him what he planned to do with it when it was finished. “Where was I going to put it? The side of the street wasn’t a great place to…
It’s Friday evening, and Against the Grain Brewery in Louisville, Kentucky, is hopping. There’s food to serve, drinks to make and customers to keep happy. In the thick of it all is director of operations Jason Smith. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but Jason, 48, has been battling Parkinson’s disease for eight…
Being a hairdresser is all Amy James ever wanted to be. “I remember styling my Barbie doll’s hair and telling my mom I wanted to be a beautician,” Amy said. Her dreams came true when she opened her own salon in 2000. So when Amy was faced with a possible career-ending injury, she was devastated….
Katina Griffith, R.T., a respiratory care coordinator at Norton Children’s Hospital, makes her impact helping sick kids recover in the pediatric intensive care unit and Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. As a registered respiratory therapist, she’s been a vital part of helping the hospital respond to surges of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus…
Helping patients with cancer live more comfortably often can weigh heavy on Rikka S. Foster’s heart and mind. As a medical assistant at Norton Cancer Institute Women’s Cancer Center, Rikka helps care for patients who have breast cancer and some who are in palliative care. According to Rikka, she wants to be there for every…
Teri Johnson works a full-time job, is a football and wrestling mom and works hard to be present for her children. While that may not seem out of the ordinary, it’s a complete 180-degree change from where she was just two years ago. In her early 20s, Teri found herself without a job and in…
It’s an all-too-common experience — lack of quality health insurance, a chronic illness and mounting bills set off a chain of bad luck and a financial struggle. A mystery illness The trouble started in the spring of 2022. “I started feeling burning in my arms, shoulders and fingers. Just excruciating pain,” said Thomas Williams, 55,…
Life can change in a single moment, and Christine Cosby-Gaither of Louisville never expected what would happen to her at just age 35. “I had a massive stroke on Jan. 28, 2019, at 4:45 a.m.,” she said. “I literally became a new person.” Christine was hospitalized, needed a breathing tube and remained in a coma…
Liz, 66, was hiking in Arizona in February when she thought she pulled a muscle on her left hip. Hot baths and physical therapy didn’t help. By the time she got home to Louisville, she was struggling to walk. Liz went to see her doctor, and images of her hip showed the joint was worn…
As a child, Winnie Shouse grew up with two loves — medicine and music. Sitting next to her grandfather watching medical dramas on television, she heard the stories about his dream to become a doctor. He had even been accepted to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, but couldn’t afford the ride to…
We can all imagine it — walking through a parking garage, putting keys away, making sure we have what we need for a doctor appointment. If a ring, earring or something else slipped off, we probably wouldn’t notice. The woman arriving for her neurologist appointment was distraught. Tears running down her face, she rubbed her…