Connecticut Health Investigative Team (https://c-hit.org/page/2/)
Thanks to everyone who read and supported the Conn. Health I-Team. Publication of new content stopped as of Dec. 31, 2022. Since 2010 C-HIT has published in-depth public service journalism on a range of topics, including systemic problems within the health care system, health disparities in chronic illnesses, inequities in health care access, barriers to care in under-served communities, including LGBTQ+.
Kamyle Dunn used to sleep with her hand resting on her mother’s chest so she could feel it expand and contract and know that her mom hadn’t stopped breathing during the night.
Dunn’s mother, Maria Cotto, has long had severe asthma. Dunn inherited the condition, though she has mostly grown out of it as an adult. Now, Dunn’s 12-year-old son also has severe asthma.
Leslie Argueta is a 21-year-old first-generation college student at Goodwin University who plans to work with children and families in need.
It’s a profession for which her own life experience has prepared her. When Argueta was 3, she emigrated from El Salvador with her family, settling in East Hartford. In Argueta’s first year of college, a car accident left her mother unable to work for a year, forcing the young college student to divide her time between her studies and hospital visits. “Me and my brother had to provide a little bit more for our family,” Argueta said.
On a September weekday morning, Maaye May removes the lock and chain from one of two gates and enters the Niles Street Community Garden in Hartford. A 6-foot high, black-metal fence encloses the garden, which measures half the size of a football field. Within the gated oasis, the city surroundings slip away as bees, birds, flowers, fruits and vegetables begin to dominate the senses.
As a fifth grader growing up in Stratford, Bridget Phelan-Nelson used to shout the same string of obscenities every morning. “I would repeat it over and over on my walk to school so I wouldn’t say it at school,” recalls Phelan-Nelson, now 39. She also had multiple motor tics throughout middle school and high school, including a nose twitch that earned her the nickname “Bunny.”
Even though motor and vocal tics are telltale signs of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition characterized by involuntary, repetitive motions and sounds, Phelan-Nelson wasn’t diagnosed with Tourette until she was 16 years old.
Since coming out as transgender in 2015, Lillian Maisfehlt has spent $10,000 on electrolysis and had voice and hormone therapy and breast construction. She also spent 10 days in Pennsylvania recovering from vaginoplasty, an operation that few surgeons perform for transgender women in Connecticut.
Maisfehlt, 47, of Chester, said the pain, cost and occasional fights with her insurance company for reimbursement have been worth it.
Karen Lombardi, a school instructional coach, had just taken an unruly child out of a classroom when she felt severe chest pains. She drove to Yale New Haven Hospital, sweating profusely and hyperventilating, and was diagnosed with a heart attack. Five weeks later, she was back in the hospital with more chest pains.
An abundance of healthy selections. Clearly marked nutrition labeling. The ability to pre-order. Fresh produce and meat.
The 364,040 people in Connecticut who face hunger—one in every 10 residents—are increasingly likely to find these and other grocery store-like features at their local food pantries.