Living Healthy Together

For as long as he can remember, Jon Carey of Erie, Pennsylvania has lived with dysthymia, also known as persistent depressive disorder. But it wasn’t until well into Jon’s adult years that his struggles with depression took a life-threatening turn. Then Jon met Dr. Ennio Ammendola, whose work as part of a team of suicide care experts proved life-changing for the 58-year-old biologist and father.&n...

Only 10% of physicians practice in rural areas – and just one percent of graduate medical training programs are located in rural communities, meaning many, if not most, providers-in-training aren’t exposed to rural health care at all.   We explore two residency programs that buck this trend: the Family Medicine Residency Programs at University of Vermon...

Nearly 15 years ago, a kitchen grease spill at home left Aaron Blair with burns on his foot so severe that he needed skin grafts and months of recovery. What Aaron could never have predicted at the time was that his traumatic injury would also begin a years-long struggle with opioid use disorder. Before Aaron knew it, he was taking 15 Percocet a day – along with oxycontin and other prescription pa...

Somdeb Chatterjee and Valerie Hunter have both accomplished something extraordinary: losing and then regaining their ability not just to walk but move all of their extremities. For Somdeb, the journey began with an international trip during which he contracted a rare and mysterious condition called Gillian-Barre syndrome. For Valerie, it as a trip-and-fall accident while feeding her horses that re...

At barely four months old, Weston Bird faced a life-threatening battle with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) that kept him in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Golisano Children’s Hospital at University of Vermont Health for weeks. This week, we follow Weston’s journey back to health through the eyes of his mother, Kristen Bird, a pediatric provider in Burlington, and learn about medical advan...

Palliative care isn’t about end-of-life. It’s about living your best, even in the face of serious illness. As Jayne Dobrin’s health declined in 2024, her husband, Steve, and adult daughters faced difficult conversations and emotional challenges. That’s when Steve and Jayne connected with the palliative care team at UVM Health – University of Vermont Medical Center, who helped guide them through so...

For more than three years now, Cash Rich has lived life from a wheelchair – the result of severe medical conditions, including degenerative disc disease, stemming from a lifetime of mental and physical trauma, substance misuse and addiction, and a self-destructive lifestyle he says was rooted in childhood abuse. In 2021, alcoholism, one of the few constants in Cash’s life, became an urgent and lif...

Since being diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 13, Kathy Johnson of Williston has lived an extraordinary medical odyssey. From pediatric cancer to cardiac crisis, the 65-year-old Williston resident has approached a lifetime’s worth of serious medical issues, diagnoses and treatments with an irrepressible, take-on-all-comers attitude. In 2025, Kathy and her care team faced a new ch...

When Trent Campbell suffered a series of strokes beginning in 2018, he and his wife, Nikki Juvan, knew their lives would change forever. Less than a decade later, in January of 2025, Montpelier resident David Goodman suffered a life-threatening stroke and made a complete recovery in about 30 hours. For stroke survivors, time is brain. Join us this week as we explore the regional system built on te...

Imagine having to shave your head after a hospital stay, because the team caring for you wasn’t able to properly care for your hair.  Hair care in the hospital can be challenging – especially for people of color.  Join us this week as we sit down with the multidisciplinary team of nurses and other health care professionals at UVM Medical Center who discovered and developed the hospital’s...

We’ll discuss mental health at home and in the classroom, the current state of chronic absenteeism and its impact on wellbeing and scholastic achievement and rural access to care. We’ll also highlight community-based support services that help students and families respond to challenges as they arise.     Pediatric experts in public health, youth mental health and absenteeism share...

A spinal surgery gone wrong left John Killacky paralyzed and living in debilitating pain. After a traumatic hit-and-run accident, Emily Metcalfe woke up in the hospital, quadriplegic, and in need of months of physical and occupational therapy as she relearned how to walk. On this episode of Living Healthy Together, UVM Health Network's podcast, John and Emily share their stories, their experiences...

When dementia and Parkinson’s made words hard to find, Allegra Miller and her husband, Bob Rinkema, found a new way to connect — through music at the piano. Their shared playing became a language of its own, even when conversation was difficult. On this episode of Living Healthy Together, UVM Health Network’s podcast, Allegra shares her caregiving journey with her husband, following his diagnosis...

Dr. Lewis First joins clinical leaders guiding work on physician education, clinical research and patient care to explain how values and vision helped create a unique "children's hospital without walls," make high-quality pediatric specialty care more accessible in rural communities, and continues to make Vermont a national leader in pediatric health and care. WDEV Airdate:  August 29, 2025

We dive into major Medicaid changes and their impact in our region. Dr. Sunny Eappen joins a panel of leaders from across our health system to unpack the impacts and share how our health system is helping patients, caregivers and rural hospitals prepare. WDEV Air Date: August 22, 2025

Hear the gripping story of Steve Stahl, who survived a widow maker heart attack on the slopes of Mount Mansfield. Join special guest UVM Health Network CEO Dr. Sunny Eappen as we talk critical care, follow Steve’s inspiring road to recovery and discuss the future of cardiac care in our region. WDEV Airdate: August 15, 2025