Elizabeth Llorente on Muck Rack

Elizabeth Llorente

New York
As seen in: Medium, The New York Times, Fox News, HuffPost, New York Post, News.com.au, AL.com, NJ.com, The Star-Ledger, Military.com and
Covers:  immigration, cultural/race relations, cuba, cuban americans, hispanics, politics, human rights
Ex journo, now PR manager, Hackensack Meridian Health. Devoted mom. George Polk Awards board member, past winner. Bluesky: ElizabethLlorente.bsky.social
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Articles by Elizabeth Llorente

Thousands of unaccompanied migrant kids settle in N.J. each year. But their trauma doesn’t end at the border.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Paola Benitez, a former unaccompanied child migrant, is now a paralegal. Last year, she interviewed clients at Casa de Esperanza in Bound Brook. Amanda Brown| For NJ Advance Med The two gunmen kept watch over the kidnapped teenagers, waiting for the ransoms to be paid. Six menacing pit bulls stood guard just feet away. Sign up for our Newsletter Agree to disagree, or disagree better?
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Inside N.J.’s in-home nursing shortage. A crisis intensifies as families beg for lifelines.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
No one came to help Abi Insley once again. The 10-year-old needs a nurse by her side throughout the day, especially when she’s in school. But for the third time in a week last month, her nurse had to call out sick. And no replacement was available. It didn’t just mean the severely disabled Sicklerville girl missed school. It means she also missed crucial therapy she cannot do without.
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Parkway Rest Stop, Renamed for Celia Cruz, Prompts a Ride Down Memory Lane

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| New Jersey Monthly Magazine
When Governor Phil Murphy announced last year that nine Garden State Parkway rest stops would be named after prominent New Jerseyans, I was delighted to learn the Forked River service area would be named after a Cuban exile who held a special place in my late mother’s life: Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa. As Mami spent her days in our Union City walk-up in perpetual motion—scrubbing floors, polishing furniture and cooking—she’d snap out of homemaker mode when Celia came on the radio.
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A staffing shortage is hurting patient care, N.J. nurses say. Most have considered leaving bedside work.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Nearly three-quarters of New Jersey bedside nurses have considered leaving their jobs recently and a majority say they’ve been placed in situations that put their license at risk, according to an alarming survey released Thursday. The survey, conducted by Health Professionals and Allied Employees — the largest health care workers union in the state — found an overwhelming sense of frustration among the 512 respondents, most of whom are bedside hospital nurses, or were until recently.
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What does $225M buy? N.J. hospital says 137,000 square feet and ‘top-quality’ care.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center broke ground Tuesday on a $225 million, 137,000-square-foot cancer center scheduled to be completed in three years. The free-standing cancer center in Livingston will offer everything from medical, surgical and radiation services to yoga, music therapy, and a wig and prosthetic studio.
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George Floyd’s attorney urges Murphy to investigate alleged racism at N.J. hospital

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Benjamin Crump, a civil rights lawyer who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black victims of high-profile police killings, is calling on Gov. Phil Murphy to investigate accusations of systemic racism at University Hospital. In a tweet Sunday, Crump posted an NJ Advance Media story in which the Newark hospital’s former diversity and inclusion officer said she was discriminated against and pushed out of her job because she is a Black woman.
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A N.J. family needed a miracle. They got one - from Facebook and a complete stranger.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The secret remained buried in her heart for four endless months. Toshira Maldonado-McIntosh wanted to believe the answer to her prayers was real, even as she watched the dialysis treatments drain her husband. Even as she watched Roy McIntosh only grow weaker. The father of five, a once-burly amateur boxer, had joined the deceased-donor kidney list in October 2020, shortly after a serious case of COVID-19 aggravated his lifelong renal problems and his kidneys began to fail.
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N.J. man spent 850 days on a ventilator. He lived in hospitals for 2 years.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The doctors gave his father just a few days to live. The coronavirus had infiltrated Marc Lewitinn’s lungs, leaving them no choice but to place him on a ventilator. The litany of health issues the 74-year-old grandfather had endured in recent years — including cancer and a debilitating stroke — would make it nearly impossible for him to fight off COVID-19, the Weill Cornell Medicine doctors told his son Albert in April2020. It was time to think about end-of-life care.
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Racism pervades this N.J. hospital, former exec says. She was forced out because of it, she claims.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
University Hospital’s former diversity and inclusion officer says her efforts to eliminate bias were demeaned and she was pushed out of her position due to racism, which pervades New Jersey’s only public acute-care facility. Dr. Chris Pernell’s Sept. 2 departure — which the hospital announced in a statement as a resignation “to pursue new opportunities” — came as a shock to many observers who viewed the Ivy League-educated administrator as a strong chief executive candidate.
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Pumpkin spice may be nice, but New Jerseyans spend weekend soaking up summer weather

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By Elizabeth Llorente, Julian Leshay
| NJ.com
Pumpkin spice? Halloween store displays? Not so fast. With fall closing in, many New Jersey residents hit trails, recreational fields and parks on Saturday as the last stretch of summer delivered sunshine and temperatures in the low 80′s. Spectators enjoyed watching and cheering at a youth soccer game at Overpeck County Park in Ridgefield Park. In the Teaneck area of the park, a family and kayakers enjoyed the dock.
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One N.J. health system is suing another. It claims its rival is out to destroy it to build a monopoly.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
CarePoint Health has filed an antitrust lawsuit against RWJBarnabas Health, the state’s largest health system, alleging it tried to force CarePoint into insolvency in order to build a health care monopoly in Hudson County. The 69-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, says RWJBarnabas conspired with others — including real estate investors and insurer Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield — to “stifle marketplace competition” by destroying CarePoint.
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Our State of Education: How New Jersey Schools and Students Are Faring

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| New Jersey Monthly Magazine
More than two years into the pandemic, school life as we knew it has transformed. Students, educators and parents are still experiencing challenges. Many districts have embraced innovations in learning and mental health to help. Here, we explore what our schools are facing. MORE FROM THIS ISSUE: These Unique Programs and Courses Engage NJ Students of All Ages NJ’s Acting Education Commissioner Talks Teacher Shortages, Safety and Mental Health Small Colleges Are Struggling. Will They Survive?
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Did a flawed pandemic tool lead to more deaths among Blacks, Hispanics? N.J. docs call for answers.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
One of the critical diagnostic tools used during the coronavirus pandemic failed to detect dangerously low oxygen levels in darker-skinned COVID-19 patients, according to recent research, alarming New Jersey doctors who call for the sobering problem to be addressed.
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N.J. hospital administrator resigns. Executive was candidate for CEO position.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
University Hospital announced the resignation Thursday of its health equity officer, an administrator many local and state leaders viewed as a strong contender to be its next chief executive. Dr. Chris Pernell will leave her post as chief integration and health equity officer effective Sept. 2, the Newark hospital said in a statement. Pernell was stepping down “to pursue new opportunities,” the statement said. University did not provide further details.
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3 N.J. health centers receive federal funding to fight HIV

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Three New Jersey health centers are among 64 nationwide that collectively will receive more than $20 million to expand HIV prevention, testing and treatment, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. The funding is part of the agency’s goal to reduce new HIV infections by 90% by 2030.
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Will N.J. lift school vaccine-or-test mandate? Murphy administration reviewing new CDC guidance.

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By Brent Johnson , Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
When federal health officials announced Thursday the U.S. is further relaxing its coronavirus guidance, the changes included ending certain quarantine and social distancing protocols, as well as recommendations for schools to routinely test students and staff to help curb the illness’ spread. Now the question is whether Gov.
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This N.J. hospital canceled surgeries over alleged understaffing. Now it’s suing.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The alarming message came at 10 a.m. on a busy day in the operating room. The majority of the 70 scheduled surgeries at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center would have to be canceled, Jennifer O’Neill, its chief operating officer, learned one winter morning earlier this year. There weren’t enough anesthesiologists to perform the procedures. Officials scrambled, pulling residents trained in anesthesiology out of classes to cover the surgeries while under supervision, the hospital says.
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N.J. hospital system reverses controversial plan to end on-site child care centers

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
After outcries over its plans to end on-site child care, Hackensack Meridian Health said Monday that it plans to continue the popular longtime service for its employees, although it may come with some changes. The health system announced the reversal weeks after first telling workers the centers would shut down by September, then extending the deadline to Dec. 31.
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38,000 more N.J. kids battle anxiety, depression than 6 years ago. What’s going on?

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Children in New Jersey and across the U.S. are struggling with anxiety and depression like never before, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report. Nearly 11% of children in the state — about 168,000 kids — suffered from anxiety or depression in 2020, compared with 7.6% in 2016, the 2022 KIDS COUNT Data Book reported. The jump amounts to 38,000 more children struggling with mental health issues.
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N.J. hospital unveils $100M emergency room expansion

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Jersey City Medical Center unveiled a $100 million, 60,000-square-foot expansion of its emergency department this week, a major step toward meeting the health care needs of one of the nation’s most densely populated counties. The expansion includes a new pediatric emergency department as well as more rooms and surgical suites for adults, according to the hospital. Jersey City Medical Center is part of the RWJBarnabas Health system and one of New Jersey’s seven Level II trauma centers.
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N.J. health system pushes back closure of child care program after employee outcry

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Hackensack Meridian Health has pushed back the planned shutdown of its decades-old onsite child care program for employees by three months after fierce criticism by staff and a union representing health care workers. The health system announced Tuesday that it was extending child care services through Dec. 31 from the originally planned date of Sept. 30. It also suggested it was weighing other ways to help employees who need child care.
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N.J. organ donations rise after pandemic drop. But donors in one group continue to fall.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Organ donations in New Jersey have rebounded from a drop in the first year of the pandemic, but greater outreach efforts must be made in the Black community, according to the president of the New Jersey Hospital Association. Blacks accounted for 11% of organ donors in the state in 2021, a significant drop from 19% in 2008 and slightly less than the 12% in 1988, according to an NJHA report on organ donation.
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Big hair. Walkmans. Stirrups. How nostalgic humor made Gen Xers want a colonoscopy. (Really.)

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Make them laugh and they will … get a colonoscopy? The Virtua Health marketing team discovered a little humor and nostalgia on social media go a long way toward spreading the word that the recommended age for the intrusive medical screening has dropped from 50 to 45. To engage people in the new age bracket, the team reached for trends that would strike a chord with Gen Xers who graduated from high school in the early 1990s. Think big hair. Portable cassette and CD players. And fanny packs.
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They’re a hospital’s best kept secret. How patient advocates are changing health care in N.J.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Gigi Anders was trying not to panic. The anesthesia hadn’t even worn off as she lie in a New York City hospital bed in May 2020, recovering from hip replacement surgery. She knew COVID-19 raged all around her, in the city, in the hospital. And suddenly, she had a fever. Anders twice tested negative for the coronavirus. But NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital decided to move her to what a nurse called a “COVID ward” despite her objections, she said.
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N.J. hospital named among top 100 U.S. acute-care facilities

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Saint Michael’s Medical Center is one of the top 100 acute-care hospitals in the United States, according to the 2022 Fortune/Merative annual list. The Newark facility is the only New Jersey hospital to make the cut. This is Saint Michael’s first time on the list, which is assembled by Merative, a health care analytics company, and published by Fortune magazine.
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Most Americans believe worst of pandemic is over, confidence in Biden wanes in new poll

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
A majority of Americans feel that the U.S. has fallen short in handling the pandemic, according to a new national survey, with the degree to which they felt strongly on particular issues often depending on their political affiliation.
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Pa. man accused of stabbing 80-year-old woman outside N.J. supermarket, police say

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| Penn Live Patriot-News
Police have charged a Philadelphia man with attempted murder in the stabbing of an 80-year-old woman Sunday as she loaded groceries into her car at a supermarket parking lot in Camden County, N.J., authorities announced Monday. Police arrested Altririk Higgins, 40, of Philadephia on Sunday afternoon, charging him with attempted murder and weapons offenses, according to a press release by the Camden County prosecutor and the Audubon police.
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Philadelphia man charged with attempted murder in stabbing of 80-year-old woman outside N.J. supermarket, police say

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Police have charged a Philadelphia man with attempted murder in the stabbing of an 80-year-old woman Sunday as she loaded groceries into her car at a supermarket parking lot in Camden County, authorities announced Monday. Police arrested Altririk Higgins, 40, of Philadephia on Sunday afternoon, charging him with attempted murder and weapons offenses, according to a press release by the Camden County prosecutor and the Audubon police.
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Mysterious symptoms once plagued this Jets player. Now his young daughter faces her own battle. Original

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Jets running back Tevin Coleman, his wife Akilah, and their 4-year-old twins, Nazaneen and Nezerah. The Colemans are sharing their experience as sickle cell trait carriers and parents to a child with sickle cell disease in an effort to raise awareness and encourage people to get screenings and treatment. The exhaustion would wash over Tevin Coleman in practice. And the cramps would lock up his body, leaving him barely able to move.
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Weed is legal. But are there health risks? Two N.J. experts weigh in.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Ascend Cannabis, a dispensary in Rochelle Park, offered recreational weed in April as New Jersey kicked off its first day of legalized sales. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media The cannabis business is flying high in New Jersey. Recreational cannabis products raked in $24 million in just one month since going on sale April 21. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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N.J. is neglecting University Hospital, union says. It wants $$$ for the ‘antiquated’ facility.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
New Jersey is continuing to underfund its only public acute-care hospital despite being in a better financial position than it has been in years, the state’s largest health care workers union contends in a new position paper. The Health Professionals and Allied Employees union says University Hospital continues to stagger under “years of state neglect and insufficient funding” and blames the state’s political leaders for not coming to the Newark facility’s aid.
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More than 100 N.J. leaders call on University Hospital to name this executive as its next CEO

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
More than 100 leaders from a variety of sectors statewide are calling on Gov. Phil Murphy and the University Hospital board of directors to name the institution’s chief equity officer as its next CEO. In an open letter to the governor and the Newark hospital’s board, the leaders — representing religious, government, nonprofit and community institutions, among others — described Dr. Chris Pernell, 46, as a time-proven “champion for health justice, health promotion and disease prevention.
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The GOP blocked the N.J. MVC head’s federal nomination. But she’s still got a job in D.C.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The Biden administration plans to withdraw the nomination of Sue Fulton, who heads the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, to the post of assistant secretary at the Department of Defense following vows by Republican senators to block her confirmation, according to the Military Times. But the Garden State official will still have a job in the federal government.
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This N.J. hospital CEO seemed like a slam dunk VA nominee. But a GOP senator blocked it.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Former University CEO Shereef Elhanal was nominated by President Joe Biden in March to become the under secretary for health at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department.Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media The confirmation of former University Hospital CEO Shereef Elnahal as under secretary for health at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department hit a snag after a Republican senator blocked an effort to fast-track the vote.
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COVID decimated this N.J. family. A year later, it still won’t let them go.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Kylie, Janice and Colton Koehne know COVID's savage and capricious nature all too well. Eric Koehne, Janice's husband and the kids' father, died of complications of the coronavirus in 2021. And Kylie and Janice suffer from debilitating cases of long COVID. Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The nightmare began with a tickle in her throat. It was a subtle warning, one that only grew more ominous in the days that followed.
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Long COVID cases are soaring in N.J. Who will treat them all?

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Alicia Thompson-Overby was 33 weeks pregnant and about to get the COVID-19 vaccine in September when she tested positive for the coronavirus. She's suffered from long COVID for months. Courtesy of Alicia Thompson-Overby Alicia Thompson-Overby never got better. Eight months have passed since the first symptoms appeared. Fever. Chills. Severe headache. The Somerset woman was 33 weeks pregnant and just days from her first scheduled COVID-19 vaccine dose when she tested positive for the coronavirus.
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This N.J. supermarket chain now carries COVID antivirals

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
New Jersey residents now have an additional source of COVID-19 antiviral medications — their local Stop & Shop supermarket pharmacy. The chain announced this week that it is offering antiviral pills at its 34 New Jersey pharmacies. Pfizer’s Paxlovid is available at each location, while Merck’s molnupiravir is available at select locations, the company said in a statement.
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Doctors hoped to buy her time. Instead, they gave this N.J. woman a 2nd chance.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The doctors hoped to buy her five more years. Chemotherapy and radiation had saved Mayra Rodriguez’s life. But the treatments for Stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma had irrevocably damaged the young woman’s heart. She was in heart failure and “in very bad shape,” a nurse told Rodriguez in 2008, just before the patient broke down in sobs. She was just 29 years old. “I wanted to get home to my baby,” Rodriguez said, referring to her then 8-month-old son.
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Is your teen tuning you out? A new study says they can’t help it - and it’s a good thing.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Do you ever feel your teen’s not listening? And how about that eye roll — the timeless,contemptuous reactionsynonymous with adolescence — whenever you say something? Take heart, Moms. It’s them, not you. That’s what a new study of teen brains confirms. The research, billed as the first to show a neurobiological explanation for what lies beneath the sass and disrespect that arise in adolescence, indicates that tuning out Mom is less willful than it is inevitable.
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A N.J. boy has brain cancer. COVID has separated him from his parents.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
The young brain cancer patient hasn’t seen his mom or dad in person in three days. Six-year-old Dominic Cappello has been hospitalized since Monday at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York. He is frightened, and screams and cries at night when he receives a daily injection, his mother, Lynn Cappello, said Thursday in a phone interview with NJ Advance Media. But New York-Presbyterian officials have told the parents to stay away, the Cappello family says.
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A foot-long blood clot. A heart that ‘just gave up.’ How a N.J. cop survived dire odds.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Frank Talarico Jr. survived a severe case of COVID-19, a foot-long blood clot in his lung, and a failing heart and kidneys. Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com The COVID patient in Room 2102 was nearing the end. Frank Talarico Jr. had been through so much already. And now his heart was failing. Sign up for our Newsletter Agree to disagree, or disagree better? We'll help you understand the sharpest arguments on the most pressing issues of the week, from new and familiar voices.
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N.J. air quality among worst in U.S. But efforts to cut diesel emissions paying off, report says.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
New Jersey's air quality is improving, but still not healthy to breathe in some areas. A new report on air quality in the U.S. ranked the New York metropolitan area, including parts of New Jersey, as one of the worst in the country for ozone pollution, despite improvements over previous years. The report, by the American Lung Association, investigated both ground-level ozone air pollution and particle pollution — soot — from 2018 through 2020.
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Murphy clarifies vaccine mandate for health care workers, does not include 2nd booster

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Maritza Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, was the first person in New Jersey to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order Wednesday clarifying that the vaccine mandate for health care workers and those who work in high-risk congregate settings does not include the recently approved second COVID-19 booster.
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Donald Payne Jr. lost his father to colon cancer. He wants to reduce barriers to screening.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
It killed his father, Donald Payne Sr. That same year — 2012 — Donald Payne Jr. decided to get a colonoscopy. It revealed more than a dozen polyps, all non-cancerous. Since succeeding his father in Congress, Payne, D-Newark, has made it a priority to raise awareness about colorectal cancer and the importance of screenings, particularly in underserved communities.
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COVID booster deadline looms for health care workers. Are N.J. hospitals ready?

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
With the new deadline looming Monday for New Jersey health care workers to receive their COVID-19 booster shots, some hospitals say the vast majority of their employees are vaccinated and boosted. But others remain below 90%. In early March, Gov. Phil Murphy extended the deadline to April 11 for workers in the health care field to get their booster or risk disciplinary action, including termination.
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They almost died in the ICU. Then the real suffering began.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Dr. James Pruden, an emergency medicine physician at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, in the hospital's intensive care unit. Pruden contracted COVID-19 early in the pandemic and was a patient in his own ICU for almost a month. He still has health issues stemming from his long stay in critical care. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media Pete Martins opened his eyes and thought it was the day after the accident.
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A 3rd COVID booster? CDC director says it could be in the cards this fall.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says people eligible for a newly authorized second booster against COVID-19 also may need a third one by the fall. In an exclusive interview with NJ Advance Media, Walensky said research demonstrates that boosters help reboot protection that tends to wane as early as four months after inoculation. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized a second COVID booster for people 50 and older.
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Gaps plague Hispanic maternity data. N.J. officials say better data would mean better outcomes.

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| NJ.com
As New Jersey forges ahead with its sweeping plan to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and infant health, gathering critical data on one group continues to pose a challenge, says first lady Tammy Murphy. Murphy, the force behind the Nurture NJ Maternal and Infant Health Strategic Plan, said data on Hispanics often does not reflect the whole picture in the community. “I think we all would readily agree that we have really good data on white moms.
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Shrinking brains, tissue damage, cognitive issues: What COVID can do to your brain

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| MLive
A major study on the impact of COVID-19 on the brain indicates even a mild case can significantly affect the complex organ, thinning tissue and disrupting functions that control smell and some cognitive abilities. The findings are sobering for the nearly 2 million New Jersey residents — and 80 million Americans — who have contracted the coronavirus.
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What COVID-19 can do to your brain: shrinkage, tissue damage, cognitive disruption

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By Elizabeth Llorente
| Penn Live Patriot-News
A major study on the impact of COVID-19 on the brain indicates even a mild case can significantly affect the complex organ, thinning tissue and disrupting functions that control smell and some cognitive abilities. The findings are sobering for the nearly 80 million Americans who have contracted the coronavirus.
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