The random Central Park reunion of two dog-walking pals gave piano-playing meteorologist Ron Trotta a new leash on life.
Trotta’s long-time fiancee Elly McGuire, on a late May stroll with her beloved pet Yorkie, bumped into cardiologist Dr. Gina Larocca, out and about with her own Yorkie. The two Upper West Siders hadn’t crossed paths in more than a year; McGuire wore a face mask, and Larocca recognized her friend’s dog first.
A distraught McGuire asked her for help: Ron had just landed in the hospital. Three terrifying months later, their chance encounter spared a critically-ill Trotta from almost certain death.
Larocca came to the rescue in late August, when the bow tie-wearing weatherman was fading fast. His body was now skeletal, his breathing dependent on a machine, his doctors convinced Trotta was far too weak to survive life-saving surgery.
The Mount Sinai Hospital doctor helped transfer Trotta to the East Side facility, where he found the happiest of endings: a successful cardiac procedure on the eve of his 72nd birthday. The recovering Trotta returned Friday to his Manhattan apartment, leaving Mount Sinai with McGuire and their Schmitty the Weather Dog after 145 days in hospital beds.
“What is it — kismet? Serendipity?” asked McGuire. “That I would go for a walk and there she was? It was meant to be. This is just a case of persistence, determination and hope.”
Larocca offered her own diagnosis: “A miracle. You don’t see this too often.”
Trotta’s debilitating health woes began with a simple March toothache. The bad tooth led to an abscess, fever and excruciating back pain as the infection spread through his bloodstream.
He landed in the hospital on Memorial Day weekend and was initially misdiagnosed with coronavirus, likely the lingering effect of contracting COVID-19 in February. Breathing issues landed Trotta on a ventilator, and he was transferred three days later to a second hospital where the infection was identified but his condition only worsened.
Trotta suffered a stroke with a brain bleed, and the facility’s doctors believed he was too far gone to survive surgery on a leaky aortic valve still internally spreading the infection. McGuire recalls the darkest day of Trotta’s long fight: June 18, when she was summoned to meet with nine hospital officials for a “family meeting.”
She had only seen Ron twice in the prior 23 days when she arrived, accompanied by her best friend. Larocca joined in via Zoom.
“One doctor looked at me and said that Ron will never come back,” recounted McGuire. “And then somebody else said, ‘You know, you have to let Ron go.’ And that night, I called 20 people to say Ron is not coming home, and everyone is crying.”
The next day, she spoke with the love of her life. The couple of 29 years made a decision: They were not giving up.
“I said, ‘Wiggle your toe if you want to keep going,'” she recalled. “And he wiggled his toe.”
It took until Aug. 24, with Larocca’s help, for Trotta’s transfer to Mt. Sinai and the care of cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Paul Stelzer, a 40-year medical veteran with more than 3,000 heart operations on his resume.
The doctor took his new patient’s shaggy dog backstory in stride.
“This is New York, where those kind of things happen,” said Stelzer, who took an instant liking to Trotta.
“His willpower convinced me to go ahead, his spunk and his sense of humor,” he recounted. “He was eager to participate if we’d give him a chance.”
McGuire knew instantly they had the right doctor when Stelzer visited the couple.
“He’s leaning against Ron and listening to his heart,” she recounted. “And he said, ‘This could be really simple. But if it’s complicated’ — and here I tensed up — ‘this is going to be more fun for me.’ I let out this sigh of relief. This man is the nicest man in the world.”
Doctor and patient shared another bond: Both are piano players, and Stelzer regularly sings in a quartet. Trotta is a three-time World Champion Ragtime pianist who once entertained President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara during a two-week cruise.
The surgery was scheduled just one week after Trotta’s admission to Mount Sinai. And while the procedure was complex and potentially dangerous, it was fairly routine for Stelzer: The replacement of Ron’s failing aortic valve took barely one hour.
Elly was waiting when Ron awoke. “I said to him, ‘Happy birthday. Guess what I got you? A new aortic valve,'” she recalled.
Trotta, in addition to his keyboard exploits, also worked as a meteorologist for ABC World News, and was joined by Schmitty for appearances at schools around the area. The four-pound Yorkie and his co-owner once even served as the official weather team for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
The post-surgery patient remained extremely weak, barely able to travel 10 feet with a walker before running out of gas. But he made amazing progress over the next month, and was soon playing the piano and trying to sing as part of his rehab — even joining Stelzer for a short and raspy duet.
Physical therapist Nehal Patel recalled how McGuire literally became his biggest cheerleader: “She showed up one day outside the gym with pom-poms.”
Elly admits there’s a lot pressure now as Ron’s chief caregiver, but she laid down some good-natured ground rules in advance.
“I already told him don’t expect your pillows fluffed,” she joked, “and there’s no buzzer to call me.”
