Gratitude Stories from Rhode Island Hospital

One morning in 2019, Eleanor Langham tripped and fell in her apartment, hitting her head on a coffee table. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that painful accident would be the beginning of a long, trying journey. 

It was late July of 2021, and Bob Gould wasn’t feeling well. He thought he caught a cold from his granddaughter during a family get-together and that maybe it turned into bronchitis. But it was much worse. He had two blocked coronary arteries and would need to have them surgically repaired without delay. Fortunately, his Rhode Island Hospital care team was there for him.

Jocelyne Dolce never thought she would be diagnosed with cancer at 30—let alone for a second time at 38. Fortunately, the Lifespan Cancer Institute and Rhode Island Hospital had her back. 

“There are simply not enough words to thank the doctors, nurses, and medical team for saving my life . . . not once but twice.”

It was December 2002 and Jay Grutman was driving from his home in Rhode Island to his winter residence in Florida. But on a highway in South Carolina, he suffered a heart attack. After two weeks in a hospital there, he finally made it to the Sunshine State.

Jay, then just 44 years old, started looking for follow-up care, yet found himself “grossly disappointed” with his options.

After Walter suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, the weeks of rehab that followed were very challenging. His family struggled to have questions answered elsewhere and knew there had to be a better option. That’s when they found Dr. Shadi Yaghi at Rhode Island Hospital. “My parents were very hesitant to trust anyone at that point, but five minutes in the exam room with Dr. Yaghi, and they felt safe and cared for,” explains Gina Johnson, about her father’s experience. “I can’t really describe the relief we felt.”

Amy Bergeron was battling complications of thyroid eye disease. The rare condition is marked by the immune system mistakenly attacking the muscle and fat tissue behind the eyes—causing progressive inflammation and damage to eye muscles, eyelids, and tear glands, and leading to the formation of scar tissue.

Mike Foncellino says he was always a healthy guy. So, you can imagine his shock when his doctor’s office called him—while he was out on a bike ride, no less—to tell him he had to get to an emergency room immediately. “The blood test I took the day before indicated that one of my kidneys was failing,” he says, “I was stunned.”