Throat ailment becomes a close call for Santabarbara Thursday, June 21, 2012 By Justin Mason (Contact)
ROTTERDAM — Angelo Santabarbara didn’t think much of the sore throat and fever he had last week. Like most people, the county legislator saw his general practitioner, grabbed some over-the-counter medication and took it easy for a few days to wait out the illness. But when his throat seemed to get worse on Father’s Day, he decided to take a precautionary trip to emergency room at Ellis Hospital to get it checked out. “By the time I woke up, I was trying to speak to my wife, she couldn’t even understand what I was saying,” he recalled. His throat, the entire right side of his face and his neck had become badly swollen. He felt the pressure in his right eye and jaw, enough so that he couldn’t drink liquid or even breath normally. Emergency physicians at Ellis quickly identified a massive infection in Santabarbara’s throat. He was given antibiotics and steroids in an attempt to keep the swelling from closing his air passage. Unaware of his grave situation, Santabarbara asked when he’d be cleared to return to his home. He was preparing to go on a beach vacation to Maryland with his family that day. Instead, he found himself aboard an ambulance speeding to Albany Medical Center Hospital for emergency surgery. His physicians later told him that he was mere hours away from having his throat entirely obstructed by an infection that had engorged his tonsils. “Doctors told me that had I waited any longer to actually go to the hospital, my airway could have been completely closed and death would have been a real possibility,” he said from his hospital bed Wednesday. “It was scary, to say the least.” Santabarbara is expected to spend at least another night in the hospital for treatment, but is expected to make a full recovery. For the 39-year-old legislator who has lived a relatively healthy life, the experience was an eye-opener, seeing how small medical ailments can quickly spiral out of control into a life-threatening emergency. But more importantly, Santabarbara said he learned how dedicated the teams of physicians and nurses are at both Ellis and Albany Med. He credited them for providing him critical care at a time when many people were spending time with their families. “I think they saved my life here,” he said.
Oh please Oh please tell me he was transported by Mohawk Ambulance.
It was. They're actually the only ones in the area that are contracted to transport patients between hospitals. It doesn't say how he got to Ellis, but the trip via ambulance from Ellis to Albany Med would have been Mohawk. And if Ellis is such a top notch hospital, why the transport to Albany Med?
get well soon, A-jello. Your PR machine is excellent in turning a private matter into a vote getter. Maybe you can push for socialized healthcare now.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
That's actually the other thing I thought he would use it for, but he's not in a run for a Federal position.
Maybe Ellis is looking for State funding. Who sits on Ellis' executive board and what firm do they use to lobby for them? My guess is, they are in the process of purchasing A-Jello.
I can hear the argument now
"Ellis could have treated A-Jello if they had the modern day equipment to treat that type of infection. You don't want to have an emergency life threating condition like A-Jello where seconds matter between life and death and have to travel ALL THE WAY TO ALBANY MED. With $20 million is state funding, Ellis can upgrade their facilty to make sure you or a loved one is not FORCED to go to ALL THE WAY to Albany Med to treat a life threating condition."
It is how George Washington dies. Maybe he is the Italo-Washington the next!
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
PUBLICITY STUNT: Greece's new prime minister and finance minister were both in hospitals Saturday, being treated for different ailments less than three days after a government was formed in the crisis-struck country. PUBLICITY STUNT: Cheney gets heart transplant PUBLICITY STUNT: Commerce Secretary John Bryson has resigned, after being involved in a pair of bizarre car accidents earlier this month upon suffering what he said was a seizure. PUBLICITY STUNT: In September 2004 Clinton needed urgent coronary bypass surgery
Any issue with a public figure is news for the media and the people who want to read that stuff.....but of course, you always believe there is a hidden agenda for everything!!!!
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
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