With Gratitude:  Patient Stories

It was August of 2024, and Marylanders, Marc and Cathy Barclay, were enjoying a weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. The couple was visiting “The City by the Sea” to attend a wedding shower with their future daughter-in-law’s family, who are from the Ocean State. 

Early on the Sunday morning of their stay, Marc made his way downstairs – then fell to the floor. “My right leg just went out from under me,” he remembers. “It was numb and, for the life of me, I just couldn’t get up.”  

Because of a rare, inherited bleeding disorder, J.R. had undergone time-consuming, uncomfortable infusions all of his life. Fortunately, that treatment pattern stopped for good recently at Rhode Island Hospital when the 39-year-old dad became the first patient ever in the Ocean State to receive groundbreaking gene therapy for Hemophilia B.

When someone’s blood pressure is too high or too low, it can adversely impact their health and well-being. But imagine if the same person’s BP was both too high and too low? Such was the case with Sharon Kilday, whose dangerous blood pressure spikes and crashes landed her in the Rhode Island Hospital emergency room.

From time to time over several years, Susan Anderson would find herself out of breath after minor, everyday exertions. But she lived with it; just part of getting older, she figured. She also minimized the come-and-go cough that occasionally accompanied her breathing difficulties. “Maybe I had a cold or something,” she’d tell herself. “But it’s not as bad as it was yesterday. So, it must be getting better.” 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t getting better ... or going away.