Month: May 2026

By Erin Miller

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    NORFOLK, Virginia (WTKR) — Two stroke program coordinators at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital are using costumes, coffee, and treats to teach their colleagues how to recognize the signs of a stroke.

Mary Stern and Karolina Lethueur De Jacquant call their initiative “Clots and Coffee.” The pair dress in unconventional costumes and roll a cart through the hospital, handing out coffee and treats while engaging staff, and sometimes visitors, across all units.

“She showed up [dressed in a red sweatsuit with balls, acting as ‘platelets’ and yarn acting as ‘thrombin]. She was like, ‘we’re going to walk around, and we’re going to hand out coffee and treats and we’re going to get [people] engaged,’” Lethueur De Jacquant said.

The costumes are part of the story they’ve built around their message.

Because every unit in the hospital treats stroke patients, Lethueur De Jacquant and Stern say recognizing the signs is the critical first step.

Stern said the approach is intentional.

“We have processes in place in the hospital where we need staff to be able to recognize the signs of a stroke, and studies have shown you’re more likely to remember something if you had fun while you were learning it,” Stern said.

The two teach the “BE FAST” method — a framework for identifying stroke symptoms.

“It stands for balance, eyes, face, arms, speech, and time,” Stern said.

Stern said time is brain health. A stroke happens when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain, and the person experiencing it often doesn’t realize what is happening.

“Your brain doesn’t know that it’s broken, so we need other people to be able to recognize it and to be able to signal for help,” Stern said.

Stern said too many people dismiss symptoms like one-sided weakness as simply being tired. According to the Sentara team, high blood pressure is the number one cause of strokes, followed by diabetes and high cholesterol.

“With every minute that passes you lose more of your ability to function, live, and take care of yourself,” Stern said.

According to the American Stroke Association, “stroke is a leading cause of long-term serious disability, and up to 80% of clot-related strokes are preventable.”

Stern and Lethueur De Jacquant also do community outreach beyond the hospital. They shared a story about a 7-year-old who remembered “BE FAST,” and called 911. His grandmother was transported to the hospital in time to be treated for a stroke.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Itay Hod

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Every time Mario DeMira slides behind the wheel and turns the key, he holds his breath.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta work with it, you know, give it a couple turns, pray a little bit,” DeMira said.

After a few tense moments, he’s on his way. A little clunky, but not bad for a vehicle that’s been around for 80 years. It’s a jeepney, and San Francisco’s most photographed vehicle you’ve never heard of.

After World War II, the U.S. left military jeeps behind in the Philippines. Instead of letting them rot, locals stretched them out, hand-painted them, and turned them into one of the most beloved forms of public transportation in the country.

And they did it in style.

“The jeepneys in the Philippines are very ornate,” DeMira said. “The drivers and Filipino people in general are loud and colorful personalities.”

Wherever this one goes, it stops traffic. People stare. They wave. They reach for their phones.

DeMira is the assistant director of SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural District, and the man behind the wheel of the last jeepney in the city. It was donated to the organization by Bay Area-based pop musician Toro y Moi after it was used in one of his music videos for a song on his 2022 album Mahal.

But even this beloved icon has hit a speed bump. Back in the Philippines, the government is putting the brakes on jeepneys, phasing them out for modern vehicles. For DeMira, it’s a road he understands, even if he doesn’t love where it leads.

“I get it,” he said. “You want to modernize. But you gotta do it in a way that still holds onto a piece of that history and that culture.”

Speaking of history, it arrived at the most inopportune moment, in the form of thick, white smoke billowing from the tailpipe, bringing the tour to an early close. For DeMira, it comes with the territory.

“Part of the charm and part of the headache,” he said.

DeMira drove the jeepney straight to the garage. He said it should be back on the road soon. Because if there’s one thing this old jeep has proven, it always finds its way back. And that’s not just blowing smoke.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Rina Nakano

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    RANCHO SAN CLEMENTE, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Rancho San Clemente residents are celebrating the groundbreaking of a new “helopod,” which will help water-dropping helicopters quickly refill and return to dousing wildfires in the area.

Vonne Barnes is the area’s master board president. She represents 14 homeowners associations and apartment complexes in the area.

“We have 1803 accounts,” Barnes said. “That’s over 5,000 people.”

Firefighters strategically chose the hill it sits on. The Orange County Fire Authority said the area has all of the ingredients for a fire, including vegetation, wind and topography.

The helopod is a 3,700-gallon tank that will be connected to the city of San Clemente’s water system. It will fill up automatically during wildfires.

“The closest body of water would be over the hills over here,” said Cheyne Maule, an OCFA division chief. “There’s a golf course with a pond at Bella Collina Golf Course. And, the other one would be Trampas Reservoir, which is off Ortega. It’s a haul.”

OCFA said helopods in Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo were instrumental in extinguishing the Rancho Fire last July.

“The helicopters were able to rotate in and out and extinguish that fire in record time,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said.

Foley’s office funded $100,000 towards the project, which should be done by the end of June.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Michael Spencer

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    ARVADA, Colorado (KCNC) — A group in Colorado is helping people recover from life-altering events in a way unique to the state: through hockey.

On Wednesday mornings at the Apex Center in Arvada, you can find Jonny Landis doing what he loves best.

“Just being out here with the guys, and shoot the breeze with them on the bench and talk trash with them on the ice is just so much fun,” says Landis.

His skate is part of Dawg Nation Hockey’s Hockey Heals group. The group gives people who have overcome life-altering events a chance to skate.

“It’s really cool that none of us should be out here playing, but we all are,” says Landis.

They are skates that Jonny doesn’t take for granted. In 2019, during his freshman year at the University of Colorado, Landis fell 42 feet off a balcony and landed on the pavement. He suffered more than 160 skull fractures, and doctors told his family that he likely wouldn’t make it.

“When (my family) got to Boulder Community Health, the emergency room doctor didn’t want to put me on the flight for life, but my mom and sister convinced him,” recalls Landis.

He spent the next 60 days in a coma and spent the next several months in the hospital and rehab.

Earlier this month, seven years after doctors told his family that he likely wasn’t going to make it, Landis walked across the stage at CU receiving his diploma.

“It felt surreal, and it didn’t feel like it was truly happening. It [was] so amazing,” recalls Landis.

With his degree in hand, Landis is currently interning with Dawg Nation Hockey and has big goals for his future.

“What I would love to do long term is, I would love to be able to sell some of the stuff that saved my life, like shunts. I think that would be really full circle,” Landis shared. “I consider myself lucky to be alive, but I also think God has bigger plans for me.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Spencer Wilson

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    WOLCOTT, Colorado (KCNC) — A Colorado climber who survived a perilous fall near Wolcott in winter of 2025 is now speaking publicly about it. That includes the massive rescue effort that followed. It also involves the new emergency whole blood program in Eagle County that she believes allowed her to survive and preserve her quality of life afterward.

Josie Mudjitaba had more than a decade of climbing experience before heading out for what was supposed to be a normal climbing day last November.

“With any sport, there’s risk and things like that,” Mudjitaba told CBS Colorado. “But this really doesn’t happen in terms of pulling off a rock (and) a rock severing the rope.”

She said the fall happened after she climbed above a bolt on the route.

“The last thing I remembered was climbing,” Mudjitaba said. “… I fell about 40 feet.”

Mudjitaba said she was fortunate the ground below her was steep instead of flat, and that likely contributed to her successful recovery. Still, her injuries were severe.

“I pretty much fell on my left side,” Mudjitaba said. “So six fractured bones, fractured pelvis, sacrum, my rib, and then I guess I hit my shoulder so hard that it fractured several bones on my shoulder as well. And then of course my head suffered a concussion, (traumatic brain injury).”

Mudjitaba said she drifted in and out of consciousness while rescuers, who were nearly 45 minutes away from her location, worked to reach her so the could eventually stabilize her.

“It was really in and out,” Mudjitaba said. “I just felt like I couldn’t move, but the smallest movement also provided extreme pain.”

Nearly 30 rescuers responded to help bring her out of the remote climbing area — made up of Eagle County Paramedics Services, Vail Mountain Rescue Group and local firefighters. Paramedic Chris Rauzi with ECPS said dispatch information immediately raised concerns.

“We have a female patient in her 40s who is conscious and breathing, but has significant injuries and is unable to walk,” Rauzi recalled when he spoke to CBS Colorado. “So, with that, I’ve got alarm bells already going off in my head.”

Rauzi said the remote location made the call even more challenging, a familiar challenge working in the mountainous region.

“Any type of big trauma like this, especially when it’s going to be a prolonged hike to get in and a prolonged amount of time to access the patient, it’s a good idea to bring the most pertinent tools that you have,” Rauzi said. “And we just got whole blood.”

Eagle County paramedics now carry whole blood units in specialized coolers on both the east and west ends of the county since October 2025, allowing crews to begin advanced trauma care before patients ever reach a hospital.

“Basically, just bringing a higher level of care to people in the field,” Rauzi said. “Getting them that care that they need faster without that time delay from where we find them to arriving at the hospital.”

It’s something crews find especially helpful with limited medical expertise in local hospitals that are occasionally not equipped to handle the level of trauma seen in accidents like Mudjitaba’s.

Mudjitaba says her condition deteriorated as rescuers prepared to lower her from the scene.

“By the time they were ready to lower me, my vitals kind of changed,” she said. “My blood pressure dropped. My heart rate went up. I became really lethargic.”

Mudjitaba said the whole blood she received in the field likely changed the trajectory of both her survival and recovery.

“It saved my life,” she said. “Without it, maybe I could have survived. Who knows? But my vital organs could have collapsed, and my recovery could have been prolonged.”

Mudjitaba said mountain rescues come with a difficult reality in rural Colorado. Advanced trauma care can be hours away.

“We were two hours away just to get to the helicopter, and then another half an hour to get to Denver,” Mudjitaba explained. “So time wasn’t on my side, and whole blood kind of bridged that gap.”

“People just think about life or death,” she added. “But oftentimes we have to think about when you do survive, what does that look like? It’s not just life or death. It’s the quality of that life.”

For Rauzi, the program represents a major leap forward for mountain emergency medicine. “I’ve been working as an EMT and paramedic for about 12 years,” Rauzi said. “There’s definitely been some cases out there where I’d just wish I know what the patient needs, but I don’t have it. But, now, we do.”

Eagle County officials said locally donated blood can directly support local hospitals and emergency crews. Upcoming blood drives are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 at the Gypsum Recreation Center, and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 22 at the Edwards station for Eagle County Paramedic Services. More information is available through the Eagle County Paramedic Services website.

Before the fall, Mudjitaba was already a regular blood donor herself. Her life-changing experience and her reception of whole blood, thanks to the team who saved her, has changed her relationship with blood donation forever.

“It’s very different,” she said. “I never thought that I would be on the receiving end.”

Now, she says she has firsthand experience with how important those donations can be.

“I’m grateful for it,” Mudjitaba said. “They just started the program, and I’m one of the first few recipients for it, and I needed it, and it saved my life.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.