Olympic-sized champion of recovery and resilience
By Elena Bisson
When Sydney Satchell walked into Ken Bruno’s physical therapy clinic on her new prosthetic leg, she carried the physical scars of a life-changing car accident and the weight of uncertainty.
A lifelong athlete and former lacrosse player at Howard University, she faced the reality of a profoundly altered life. Yet, Satchell found more than a physical therapist in Bruno. She found a partner for the journey to rediscover her strength and return to the sports she loved.
Bruno, who has 20 years of outpatient orthopedic experience, took on Satchell’s case with determination. Over two years, he worked closely with her, crafting a personalized recovery plan that blended physical challenges with emotional support.
“I was personally inspired by Sydney’s ability to dig deep inside herself to push her limits and simultaneously let go of her fears through her belief in having a larger purpose,” Bruno says. “Her drive, on top of her natural athleticism, made for a powerful combination.”
Early in her recovery, Satchell was unsure of her future as she adjusted to her prosthetic. Bruno remembers that phase as a turning point.
“It took time to work through her physical pain and uncertainty. We started with the basics: walking, stairs and balance,” he says, recalling the moment of transformation.
She came in one day with a new look — she had cut her hair — and found the inner fire we see today. From that point on, I was working with Sydney the athlete.
Bruno tailored the rehabilitation to Satchell’s ambitious goals.
“It got really fun for me to try and keep up with her,” he shares. “She was sprinting in the parking lot, pulling me through the office during power drills and dominating the agility ladder. Her progress was incredible.”
The intense collaboration ultimately propelled Satchell to represent Team USA in seated volleyball at the 2024 Paralympics, a monumental milestone reflecting her resilience and Bruno’s expertise.
The life-changing impact goes both ways
“One unexpected benefit was how she inspired my three daughters. Watching her story unfold and cheering for her during Team USA’s progression through the Olympic Games has been unforgettable,” he shares.
Satchell’s triumph is his ultimate reward, he adds. Her achievements embody the essence of his work helping patients redefine what’s possible and empowering them to reach extraordinary heights.
CESI celebrates 25 years
From humble beginnings
By Hilary Waldman
The path to Hartford HealthCare’s world-renowned Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI) was paved by a dream, a homeless manikin and a doctor with a broken leg.
Twenty-five years later, this humble origin story feels almost mythical.
But, standing in today’s 53,000- square-foot state-of-the-art building, where high-fidelity simulation rooms and life-like manikins teach clinicians to perform skills from inserting catheters to robotic surgery, its founders are proud to tell the tale.
It begins in 1999. Thomas Mort, MD, a Hartford Hospital anesthesiologist, and Stephen Donahue, a respiratory therapist involved in critical care education and quality improvement, shared a vision that clinicians could provide safer, higher quality care if they could practice on sophisticated manikins.
They secured a rudimentary medical simulation manikin and, for three years, Donahue pushed it around the hospital on a stretcher, providing skills training to anyone willing to try it. It was a labor of love, unpaid and after hours. When not in use, the manikin was stashed under a bed in a call room.
At around the same time, unbeknownst to Donahue, Hartford Hospital surgeons were rapidly expanding the use minimally invasive surgery. The technique promised smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and faster recovery, but required extra training for surgeons. Urologic surgeon Steven Shichman, MD, was at the forefront of this innovation, teaching techniques to surgeons around the world from his Hartford Hospital post.
A commercial, a broken leg and a match made in heaven
Dr. Shichman and Donahue finally met by accident in 2004.
The hospital’s marketing team was filming a TV commercial using a mothballed operating room and Donahue’s manikin. Clad in a white coat, Donahue played the doctor. By coincidence, Dr. Shichman, who was recovering from serious injuries sustained in a head-on car crash, hobbled onto the set on crutches. As he looked more realistic than the manikin, someone roped him into playing the patient.
Anyone who’s ever been on a movie set knows there’s a lot of waiting around, which gave the two Steves time to chat about their mutual passion for simulation training. This chance hallway conversation became the catalyst for CESI as we know it today.
This makes the evolution sound easy, which it was not. In need of funding, Donahue and Dr. Shichman knocked on many doors before Jeffrey Flaks, then Hartford Hospital’s interim chief operating officer, lent his support.
Serendipity struck again when one of Dr. Shichman’s patients overheard him and Donahue discussing the simulation center one day and pledged $1 million to get it off the ground. That was followed by support from the Hartford Hospital Auxiliary, more money from the eavesdropping benefactor and, ultimately, a state grant matched by HHC and private donations raising a total of $50 million.
CESI at 25
In addition to training clinicians, CESI has become an invaluable resource for medical device manufacturers, supporting research and development of new technology and training of healthcare providers to use the newest devices and surgical techniques.
Revenue from contracts with some of the world’s largest manufacturers support CESI’s primary mission of training HHC healthcare teams to provide safer, higher quality care to our patients.
Wrapping up its 25th year, CESI’s staff has grown from one volunteer to 36 full-time colleagues. In addition to training healthcare providers, CESI teams also train military units, first responders and law enforcement departments from around the world.
Communicating Clearly
By Kate Carey-Trull
Hands and fingers slicing quickly and soundlessly through the air, Kellyann Parry relayed important medical information from Nicholas Coutant, nurse manager, to a patient on Hartford Hospital’s Bliss 5 East.
Parry fielded questions from the deaf patient in American Sign Language (ASL) and repeated them to Coutant. She conveyed the answers in ASL.
Hartford HealthCare’s first full-time ASL translator, Parry has been in high demand for interpretation and helping colleagues better understand the deaf community.
“Many people think all people who are deaf can lip read or writing something down will work. Also, just because they can speak doesn’t mean they can hear,” says Parry, a nationally certified ASL/English medical interpreter. “A hearing aid may not mean they can hear everything either. They’re not like glasses — there’s still processing in your brain that can impact hearing comprehension.”
Adding options
With a statewide shortage of ASL interpreters, Parry was hired to cover in-person and video requests from across HHC. Supplementary in-person interpreters are available through our partnership with the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford during emergencies and scheduled appointments.
“Effective communication is essential for delivering safe, high-quality care. Through this partnership, we are excited to expand our ability to provide in-person interpreters for our deaf patients and their companions. This enhancement not only ensures clearer communication but provides a more supportive and inclusive environment for our patients,” says Elizabeth Begley, HHC civil rights coordinator and senior director for customer and patient relations.
Being clear is key
When she was attending community college, Parry wasn’t sure what she wanted to study. Once she took ASL and deaf culture courses, however, she fell in love with translating English to ASL and has been doing it ever since.
“I work with families and patients. If a patient or caregiver is deaf or hard of hearing, it is important for everyone to be able to communicate clearly and understand each other,” Parry says.
While people often say she is there for the patient, she reminds them she is also there for the doctors and nurses to make sure patients and caregivers understand what the healthcare providers are saying and can ask questions of them.
Expanding Access and Advocating for Change is her Prescription for Success
By Elissa Bass
There are many sides to Brianne Nichols — the Andover resident interned with the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal program training dolphins and sea lions, she’s raising an adorable pit bull named Roxy and her work as a pharmacist earned her a coveted spot on the most recent Hartford Business Journal “40 Under 40” list.
The 37-year-old director of retail/ specialty/ambulatory pharmacy for Hartford HealthCare started with the system 10 years ago as a pharmacist before moving into leadership and becoming laser-focused on growth in her three divisions.
In addition to growing pharmacy services at HHC, Nichols was instrumental in changing state law to allow pharmacists to counsel patients and monitor medications.
“This change gives patients more access to a dedicated pharmacist for additional support,” she says.
To help more people get the prescription medication they need if they don’t have insurance coverage, Nichols also helped expand the Hope Charitable Pharmacy of Greater Bridgeport into Hartford.
At HHC, she’s managed through tremendous expansion of the specialty pharmacy. When she joined the service in 2017, there were four other employees. Today there are 30 and revenue has grown by 1,100% (no, that’s not a typo).
“We use liaisons to help patients navigate insurance and financial assistance and give direct access to a pharmacist for medication education and
What a Rushford
Melody Makers Hit All the Right Notes
By Elissa Bass
It might look like songwriting, music making and performing, but it’s a lot more than that.
Rushford’s Melody Makers program, which was started five years ago to bring together young people in Meriden to dip their toes into the music industry.
Rushford’s Meriden Healthy Youth Coalition, created to reduce and prevent youth alcohol and substance use, works with the community group Ball Headz on the effort.
A music professional known as ‘KC Makes Music’ facilitates the students in the program at his studio, Brightside Creative. He provides the space and the professional development that goes into the creation of a song. The program “is open to all adolescent kids in Meriden,” said Jessica Matyka, clinical director for Rushford’s crisis and acute community programming. “We are trying to engage the at-risk population, primarily high school-age.”
“Making music can provide an outlet, they can release what they are feeling while they are creating and learning the mechanics of making music.” KC noted that music has been a big part of his health.
“Music started as a form of therapy for me,” KC said. “I’ve been sober for eight years and I started writing music to get things off my chest and talk about my experiences. It’s been a paramount part of my recovery and it’s improved my mental health in ways I’ve never dreamed.”
KC explained that during the course of the program “we take the group through the entire process of making a song from start to finish, touching on production, engineering, creating melodies, writing lyrics and recording.”
Providing these teens a place to be in the summer – when they can often find themselves home alone and isolated, leading to making poor decisions – where they can make new friends and learn new skills, is so important, said Kate Glendon, prevention manager.
Even just creating the lyrics to the song can be therapeutic, as they are able to bring out “heavy topics and talk about them but it doesn’t feel like ‘therapy’,” Glendon said.
“I never cease to be amazed by the topics the students want to tackle in the songs,” KC said.
Excellence in Every Interaction
By Libby Marino
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) bestowed its prestigious silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence on The Hospital of Central Connecticut critical care team in celebration of a culture of excellence that unites patient care and a vibrant work environment.
“This achievement is a testament to the extraordinary efforts our team puts in every single day,” said Wendy Napolitano, HOCC ICU director of nursing. “The Beacon Award represents our team’s skill, compassion and relentless pursuit of high-quality care. It’s a mark of pride that honors the journey we’ve taken together.”
The critical care team achieved excellence in key AACN areas that define top-tier performance:
- Leadership structures and systems
- Staffing and engagement
- Communication, knowledge
- Sharing and growth
- Evidence-based practices
- Outcome measurement
The Beacon Award for Excellence recognizes units that set the highest standards for critical care, achieving AACN Healthy Work Environment Standards. HOCC’s silver-level award speaks to a culture where commitment to safety, collaboration and innovation lift patient care to a higher standard.
“Our team’s dedication is evident in every patient interaction, every team huddle and every decision we make to improve outcomes,” Napolitano shared. “This award is the culmination of our shared mission to make a difference, where every colleague is driven by purpose and pride.”
A Surgeon for Social Justice
By Susan McDonald
The state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities named Camelia Lawrence, MD, director of breast surgery for the HHC Cancer Institute in the Central Region, recipient of its Mario and Janet Vigezzi Award for Social Justice during its Civil Rights Leaders and Legends Awards Ceremony.
“I am deeply honored and this distinction serves as a lasting reminder of my commitment to advancing our shared goals of creating a more just and equitable society,” Dr. Lawrence said.
“I thank my family, friends, especially my daughter Ashley who joined me and the Jamaican American Connection Inc.”
Dr. Lawrence also thanked Hartford HealthCare “for encouraging my community participation. HHC is a tremendous supporter of the communities we serve and equity is amongst our five core values.”