Throop couple finds answers, support and services by connecting with The Wright Center’s team

The full extent of his wife’s memory lapses became clear to John P. Warnero on a snowy morning in 2015 when he stepped outdoors to shovel.

He discovered the couple’s car shrouded in a blanket of new-fallen snow, parked in the driveway of their Throop home where it had been all night, with its engine still running.

“She forgot to shut it off,” he says. “It ran for 12 hours straight.”

A former cabinet maker, John, 67, now serves as MaryEllen Warnero’s main caregiver, assisting and sometimes agonizing as she grapples with the relentless and dastardly progression of early-onset dementia, presumably caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

More than 280,000 Pennsylvanians are living with the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, which calls the situation in the commonwealth a “growing public health crisis” due to “escalating” cases.

Alzheimer’s disease affects a person’s memory, thought and language. The degenerative brain disorder is one of the nation’s leading causes of death. A half-million people in Pennsylvania, including spouses like John, serve as family caregivers for their loved ones, doing their best to help with daily living activities and provide nurse-like assistance, often for no pay.

To support Northeast Pennsylvania families like the Warneros, The Wright Center for Community Health last year introduced an Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program. It offers a range of health and supportive services to improve the quality of life of individuals with dementia and their caregivers.

The program offers solutions to caregiver stress and takes into account factors such as each person’s specific medical and behavioral health needs and cultural traditions, says Sharon Wittenbreder, C.N.P., a certified registered nurse practitioner at The Wright Center. “We customize the plan of care,” she says, “according to the unique individual – both the patient and the caregiver.”

John was a featured participant during last month’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s fundraising event at PNC Field in Moosic, where he credited The Wright Center’s team for its assistance and called out by name MaryEllen’s longtime physician, Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak.

“The Wright Center’s team is constantly offering tips on communicating better with my wife, promoting healthy snacking to counteract her sweet tooth and other issues that caregivers like me encounter,” he says.

When John’s caregiving duties get especially difficult, draining his energy or fraying his emotions, he can also tap into his other support system: his family.

John and MaryEllen were drawn to each other as teenagers. She sang in a country/folk band, and they both attended concerts in Dunmore. A few years later, they married. MaryEllen held various jobs during young adulthood, including as a professional in a bank’s human resources office. While still in her 50s, however, she began showing dementia symptoms.

Initially, it wasn’t clear what was happening. At first, because MaryEllen had developed difficulty with following instructions, she made an appointment to have her hearing tested. Her hearing was perfect. Only later, after visits with a neurologist, did MaryEllen receive the dementia diagnosis. As the news was delivered, she cried. And so did John.

The disease torments them both.

For now, John’s support network is allowing him to care for MaryEllen in their home and to maintain his perspective and patience, even amid the most difficult and heart-wrenching of circumstances.

“Those bursts of anger are not her fault,” says John. “It’s the disease that’s doing all this.”

For information about the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program at The Wright Center for Community Health, visit TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.

COVID-19 treatment helps Wright Center patients feel better faster and stay out of hospital

It was a scorching day in August 2021. Yet Kimberly burrowed deeper into a winter coat, hoping to stop her body from shaking. Her husband and a few concerned Wright Center employees helped her to shuffle into the Jermyn clinic, where she had an appointment to receive a treatment that, for Kimberly and other high-risk patients, can seem like a miracle.

Called COVID-19 infusion therapy, it has been shown to lessen the severity of symptoms for certain patients, potentially quickening their recoveries, preventing hospitalizations and saving lives. The Wright Center began offering the therapy in mid-January 2021 and has so far infused more than 200 patients – many of whom report experiencing sudden, dramatic improvement.

“I immediately felt better,” recalls Kimberly, a resident of Spring Brook. “I couldn’t walk into the room by myself, but I was able to get up, take my Wright Center blanket and walk out. Infusion therapy is an amazing thing. I don’t know what’s in it, but it’s amazing.”

COVID-19 infusion therapy contains virus-fighting proteins known as monoclonal antibodies. These antibodies are made in a laboratory to target a particular invader, in this case, the novel coronavirus. However, monoclonal antibodies perform the same defense function as a healthy person’s naturally occurring antibodies: identifying invaders, then latching onto and destroying them.

The therapy is a one-time treatment. Delivered via an intravenous infusion, it can easily be administered in outpatient settings such as a doctor’s office. A patient typically will spend much of the appointment reclining on an exam table or in a comfortable chair, not unlike a visit to a blood-donation center. The entire appointment generally takes about two hours.

Among those eligible to receive the therapy are seniors, ages 65 and older, with mild to moderate COVID symptoms. Younger patients, ages 12 to 64, also are candidates if they have an underlying health condition such as a chronic lung disease (including moderate to severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and COPD), cardiovascular disease or hypertension, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease and obesity. The Wright Center has streamlined its referral process so that if a patient tests positive for COVID-19 at any of our primary care practice locations in Northeast Pennsylvania, the individual can be immediately scheduled for infusion therapy.

In one instance, The Wright Center provided COVID-19 infusion therapy at an off-site location – treating nine residents of a Scranton-area senior living community in a single day. All of those residents have dementia, and some experience agitation, which posed extra challenges to the care team, recalls Sheila Ford, R.N., associate vice president of clinical quality and patient safety.

Infusion therapy must be administered within 10 days after a patient’s symptoms first emerge and/or after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. “We prefer to get you infused within the first 48 hours after testing positive, just so your symptoms don’t worsen,” Bryan says.

‘I was so scared’

For Kimberly, 50, who is a Wright Center employee and a North Pocono High School graduate, her symptoms started mildly on a Monday morning, with watery eyes, and soon steamrolled. By that evening, she had a pounding headache. Then fatigue. Overnight, she awoke with chills and took her temperature: 102.9 degrees.

“Automatically, I just got up, took my pillow, went to another room and shut the door,” she says. “In the morning, I sent my husband a text message saying, ‘I’m pretty sure I have COVID.’ I was so scared.”

For more information about COVID-19 infusion therapy or to schedule an appointment, visit TheWrightCenter.org/covid-19/ or call 570-230-0019.

Our ‘medical home’ connects patients, physicians in trusting bond

Upon giving birth to a healthy baby boy in January, Amy Cortazzo texted the joyous news about her first child to immediate family members and then to a person who, while not related, was key to Amy’s successful pregnancy.

The text recipient was Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of the Wright Center for Community Health.

Known as “Dr. Linda” to Amy and her family, Dr. Thomas-Hemak has long served as the family’s primary care physician and a trusted advisor when navigating new life stages and circumstances, such as caring for elderly parents, or in Amy’s recent case, attempting to conceive.

Baby Kristov, who entered the world at 3:38 a.m. on a Saturday, represents the fourth generation of the family to be cared for at The Wright Center, specifically as patients of Dr. Thomas-Hemak.

“Kristov is, literally, a living testament to her help,” says Amy. “Because we wouldn’t have had him, I don’t think, if it hadn’t been for her.” 

For Amy, a Dickson City resident and school teacher, The Wright Center essentially goes a step above “patient-centered.” It’s essentially family tree-centered. Kristov and Amy routinely get their care at The Wright Center. Amy’s mother, Joanie Rummerfield goes there, too. And so did Joanie’s parents, who are now deceased.

In fact, Joanie credits the care given to her parents under Dr. Thomas-Hemak’s compassionate oversight for increasing their longevity. “I know she gave them more years,” says Joanie, a former nurse. “They were 91 and 92 when they passed.”

Both Amy and Joanie are appreciative that The Wright Center’s clinics, beyond offering high-quality primary care, also serve as training sites for physicians enrolled in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s residency and fellowship programs. “In a teaching environment like that, you always get the best, most thorough care,” says Joanie. “The doctors are on their toes because they’re teaching. And you get more eyes and ears on you as a patient than you would typically get.”

Amy and her mother began scheduling their doctor appointments with Dr. Thomas-Hemak soon after she first began practicing in Northeast Pennsylvania, recruited to return to her home community by the late Dr. Tucker Clauss. The family’s relationship with her, however, extends back to her pre-medical school days, when she worked in an area restaurant that the family frequented for Sunday breakfasts.

In the years since, they have turned to their primary care physician to handle mundane matters – including employment-related physical exams, well visits and minor scrapes and sicknesses – as well as life’s most significant ones, such as dying with dignity.

“Dr. Linda came to see my grandparents, making house calls during their later years,” Amy says. “That’s just the type of person she is. And that’s the type of person we knew her to be all those years ago when we first met her at the restaurant. It kind of culminated in this wonderful relationship that we have with her now.”

Amy’s doctor, who is now in many respects a family friend, has been with them as they mourned at memorial services. She has alleviated their discomforts. She has answered their questions. She’s counseled them on bringing new life into the world and celebrated a birth. Along the way, she has left a gentle, healing imprint on four generations.

“And Dr. Linda is young enough,” Joanie says, while laughing, “to tackle a fifth generation.”

Linda of Throop

Linda Marhelski landed in Wright place at right time to have dangerously high blood pressure detected

Linda Marhelski’s mad scramble to get vaccinated against COVID-19 led her to The Wright Center for Community Health, a twist of fate that she credits with saving her life.

The Throop resident arrived at our Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn, eager for the newly released coronavirus vaccine that would offer protection to herself and her family, especially her husband, whose recent bout of pneumonia had both of them worried. Linda’s head had been bothering her lately; she chalked it up to tension. Pandemic stress perhaps.

But as Linda sat in the exam room in mid-March – and her vital signs were taken prior to the highly anticipated shot – a practitioner called out her blood pressure reading: an alarmingly high “212 over 97.”

A blood pressure level in that category signals “hypertensive crisis” and indicates a patient should immediately connect with a doctor to evaluate the situation before it leads to a medical emergency such as a stroke.

On the day her issue was detected at The Wright Center’s exam room, Linda was closely monitored until her pressure decreased. She was able to receive the COVID vaccine. And she says that she departed with a prescription for a second blood pressure-lowering medication, instructions to take the first pill ASAP and guidance to follow up quickly with her own family physician.

It soon became clear to Linda that her condition, if left untreated, could have resulted in a disabling condition or even a fatal heart attack or stroke. When she returned to The Wright Center a few weeks later to receive her second dose of the vaccine, she couldn’t contain her gratitude. She told the care team, “You saved my life!”

Her thanks and relief were compounded when she got the second shot, experiencing only a sore arm while boosting her immunity against the COVID-19 virus. Until then, the pandemic had been particularly nerve-wracking for Linda and her husband, Walter Marhelski, a Vietnam War veteran.   

Walter copes with heart and lung issues that he attributes to chemical exposure while serving overseas. The Old Forge native developed pneumonia and landed in an area hospital in January 2020. Only weeks later, as the coronavirus outbreak began in Northeast Pennsylvania, he was advised to get out of the rehabilitation center and to stay home to avoid any possibility of infection. “They said if he got the virus, he would not make it,” Linda recalls.

The couple took the health warnings seriously and hunkered down, following safety guidance on hand washing, sanitizing, masking and social distancing. “She wouldn’t let the mailman come within 30 feet of the mailbox,” Walter says, laughing.

Mindful of her husband’s vulnerability, Linda did all she could in those early days to protect him. Each time she shopped for groceries, she would return home, shower and put on clean clothes. “I was even wiping off the mail and everything,” she says. “We were scared.”

By year’s end, as the newly developed COVID-19 vaccines became available, Linda and Walter were ready to roll up their sleeves. “We couldn’t wait to get the shot,” she says.

But early demand for the vaccines made it seemingly impossible for them to make an appointment. Walter ultimately received the vaccine through the VA Medical Center. In attempts to get Linda vaccinated too, he made phone calls and visited websites for an exhaustive list of places: multiple chain and independent pharmacies, the region’s 2-1-1 call center and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). No luck; she got no further than waiting lists.

Finally, the couple learned that vaccines were available at The Wright Center. “After I called,” says Linda, “I didn’t have to wait long before my appointment. It was quick.”

For most of Linda’s adult life, the former Inn at Nichols Village employee took care of the people closest to her, including children and grandchildren, without paying too much attention to her own health. Her timely visit to The Wright Center was a wake-up call.

Now Linda routinely checks her blood pressure at home, she says. She has an appointment on her calendar to again see her physician. And she knows that if she experiences any unusual symptoms or has concerns, the instructions from her doctor’s office are clear: Please call us. Don’t wait.

Ann of Archbald

Our Geriatrics Service Line supports area seniors who aim to live independently

Over the course of a few days, Ann’s old pink bathtub was removed and replaced by a walk-in shower. Pulling back a shower curtain to allow visitors to see the newly completed project, she asked, “Isn’t that beautiful?”

In addition to the bathroom mini-remodel, a worker installed a new dimmable light fixture and light switches so that Ann can more safely negotiate her way to bed at night without the aid of a flashlight or the need for a risky reach from atop the staircase to grasp an overhead pull chain.

Admittedly, Ann’s home, which she believes was built in 1917, hasn’t undergone many major renovations lately. The exterior appears to be in fine shape, courtesy of light gray siding installed when Ann and a sister, now deceased, shared the property. The dwelling fronts the street, separated by only a steep grassy bank and a series of concrete stairs with wrought-iron rails. “It’s not that great. It’s not that beautiful,” Ann said. “But it’s my house.”

One of 10 siblings raised in the place, Ann attended Archbald High School through the 11^th grade (quitting, she said, because she got perturbed at teachers who “were rotten to me”) and then began a nearly 50-year career in the garment industry. She first worked in a factory in Archbald, to which she walked each workday, and later switched to a Carbondale plant, hemming children’s clothes. “I had a nice job,” she said.

She toured the nation a few times, sightseeing in Hawaii and trying her luck in Las Vegas. She formerly enjoyed monthly bus trips to Atlantic City and even once toyed with the notion of touring Italy. (She cancelled the European journey because of a dislike for air travel.)

Today Ann still drives a vehicle, making short trips in town, although the pandemic suspended her usual outings to meet up with friends at McDonald’s. Her network of pals includes former co-workers, acquaintances made over the years at the local senior center and fellow attendees of Sunday Mass.

With the assistance of a sister, niece and other close-at-hand relatives and friends, plus caregivers who do twice-weekly light housekeeping, Ann keeps her house – much like her physical condition – in remarkably good order. “I just had my eyes examined,” she said recently. “He told me I don’t need glasses; my eyes are perfect.”

Without consulting a calendar, Ann knows the dates of her upcoming appointments with providers who monitor her general health, kidney function and heart.

For any emerging health concerns, Ann keeps handy the cellphone number of Kari Machelli, RN, The Wright Center’s Associate Vice President of Integrated Primary Health Services. The two have known each other for nearly two decades. Together, they keep close tabs on Ann’s blood pressure.

The Wright Center’s Geriatrics Service Line is based on the belief that personalized, regular care – rather than crisis management – compassionately improves the quality of life for older patients. Efforts are made to reduce the potential negative impacts of social isolation, such as cognitive decline or depression.

During a recent visit to Ann’s house, Kari suggested that, as an alternative to TV watching, Ann might want to try an iPad available on loan through The Wright Center to play games, color and do puzzles. Likewise, she asked if Ann would like to be visited from time to time by Sister Maureen Marion, The Wright Center’s Life Enhancement Spiritual Aide.

Ann was receptive to both ideas. At the end of their visit, the duo exchanged “I love you’s.” As Kari exited the house, she called over her shoulder, saying, “Ann, I’ll call you later about scheduling Sister Maureen’s visits, and keep letting me know what your blood pressure is.”

Once outside, Kari began descending the steps to the street and said: “Oh, my god, I love Ann. I want to take her home.”

That’s only wishful thinking, of course, because Ann wouldn’t go. She’s perfectly happy to remain right where she is.