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VOL. 30 NO. 2
JANUARY 5 - 11, 2023
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Hablamos Español
‘Donating blood is not that hard’ Jamshed Ghadiali marked his 350th contribution last month By ANDRE SILVA asilva@liherald.com
Courtesy Jamshed Ghadiali
JAMSHED GHADIALI WANTS to spread awareness of the need for blood, and spur his neighbors to donate more of it.
Jamshed Ghadiali tries to donate blood platelets to the American Red Cross every four weeks — something he’s done since 1997. “I just want people to know that donating blood is not that hard,” said Ghadiali, 76, a retired insurance salesman from Baldwin who is originally from India. He said he wants to spread awareness of the need for blood, and spur his neighbors to donate more of it. Ghadiali
made his 350th donation on Dec. 18 — 57 years after his first one, to the Indian Red Cross Society, in August 1965. “Some people say, ‘They won’t take my blood,’” Ghadiali said. “I want people to speak with their doctor, and if they say it’s OK, go to the center, answer all the questions truthfully, and let the professionals decide whether they should take your blood or not.” Approximately 3 percent of Americans are yearly blood donors, which Ghadiali said is not enough to support our modCONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Christmas dinner never tasted better for Danny Voyes Baldwin man with dysphagia regained his ability to swallow not long before the holidays By ANDRE SILVA asilva@liherald.com
Danny Voyes, of Baldwin, was able to eat Christmas dinner with his family this holiday season for the first time in four years. Voyes, 32, was diagnosed with mild dysphagia — difficulty swallowing food or liquids caused by nerve or muscle issues in the esophagus — in 2007, and then severe dysphagia in 2014, and has undergone more than 60 surgeries in the past decade to treat his condition. The operations affected his ability to swal-
low as well as speak, and left him unable to use his mouth to eat for four years, until last month. On Christmas, Voyes was able to swallow food and eat with his family, after a year of successful swallow therapy — a non-traditional, innovative new treatment. “I haven’t been able to eat in almost four and a half years,” Voyes told the Herald. “It’s just amazing to finally taste food again.” As a result of his surgeries in recent years, he has been unable to eat solid or pureed foods. But in 2021, Voyes began outpatient
I
t’s just amazing to finally taste food again.
DANNY VOYES Baldwin treatment with a “speech and swallow” team at Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, and in December he was able to eat pureed holiday favorites. In the past, he said, Christmas was a difficult and lonely day for him because he would be
surrounded by family and sumptuous food, but couldn’t share it. He could not eat using his mouth, and instead he used a special pump and feeding tube that deposited food directly into his stomach. Holidays were especially difficult, Voyes said, when he visited
other families’ homes. At his house, he said, he could at least go to his room or walk away from the table to entertain himself. This year he was able to create a new, very different memory of the holiday when he ate with his family. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4