Mind over matter
Claudia I. Martinez, MD, insisted she needed to finish school before surgery, but her neurosurgeon had a way with words.
“He said, ‘If you don’t do this, you’ll end up paralyzed from the neck down,’” Claudia recalls.
When the unexpected happens
Much of life can be scheduled: Annual doctor and dental checkups, dinner with friends or family, work meetings. But trauma—a leading cause of death and disability—comes without warning. While it happens at every age, it’s the number one cause of death between the ages of one and 45, marking it as a disease of the young and a major health burden.
Lighting the way for nursing leaders
With its Ambassador program, Cizik School of Nursing is helping to address the growing nursing shortage. The program trains confident, empowered nurse leaders to care for our communities and educate future nurses. Undergraduate students with a high grade point average can apply, and as of the summer of 2022, 116 students have benefitted from this opportunity.
Ensuring educational success
For people from underserved backgrounds, the road to becoming a health expert is often laden with barriers. Many students must leap hurdle after hurdle to further their education and achieve their dreams—a feat particularly more difficult as an underrepresented minority in advanced education.
Turning the page
The conversation in the car ride home is a familiar one for Kimberly and Randall Velasquez. Their three-year-old son, Blake, received a book at his annual checkup, and while he can already recite his colors and numbers with pride, he doesn’t yet know how to read by himself. He turns to his older sisters—McKenzie, Adriana, and Serenity—for help.
A race against time
The warmth of a parent’s smile, the glow of a significant other on their wedding day, the fiery sunset over the sea during a blissful vacation: Treasured memories that we carefully clutch like grains of sand to keep forever. As we age, the grains pile in our palms, but only a few trickle out between our fingers. For people living with Alzheimer’s disease, this trickle eventually turns into a cascade, where memories flow freely through their grasp no matter how desperately they grip.
Living in the moment
When memories of the past begin to fade, patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia often experience life changes that can bring heavy emotional tolls. From the shock of receiving a diagnosis to the anticipation of further memory loss, patients and caregivers alike encounter challenges that have a lasting impact.