From Hopeless to Happiness: A Concussion Patient’s Journey

Gerry Stefanelli was ready to give up.

A car accident in 2018 left him with a severe concussion – excruciating pain, the inability to turn his head even slightly, dizziness, lack of balance. After seeing first emergency care providers, then neurologists and neurosurgeons and then physical therapists (all outside the Hartford HealthCare system), nothing changed. He was told, “Learn to live with it. This is your new normal.”

Then in early 2022, a friend of his son’s said, “I know a doctor you should call,” and gave him the contact information for Stephanie Alessi-LaRosa, MD, a sports neurologist with Hartford HealthCare’s Ayer Neuroscience Institute who specializes in post-concussion syndrome.

So he made the phone call that would change his life.

Click here to read how a combination of steroids, physical therapy and great medical care changed Gerry's life.