Healing through expert care, kindness and laughter

When Margaret Robinson, 80, arrived in her room at Sharp Memorial Hospital to begin recovering from gastrointestinal surgery in September 2026, to say she wasn’t feeling well would be an understatement.

“I’d dealt with several health issues over the last few years,” she says. “After my surgery, I was so miserable and feeling so weak.”

Fortunately, all it took to start feeling better was a voice — that of nursing assistant Johnny Soto-Padilla.

“I heard Johnny from down the hall and remembered him from a previous stay at Sharp Memorial,” Margaret says. “I was so happy he was coming to check on me. He had me laughing again within 30 seconds.”

Meeting HAT

Soto-Padilla is a member of the Healthy Aging Team (HAT), part of Sharp Memorial’s Generational Health program. Generational Health is a unique offering at Sharp HealthCare that provides older adults with personalized care tailored to their individual needs.

"For an older adult, even while receiving great medical care, sometimes a hospital stay can deteriorate their overall physical and mental condition,” Soto-Padilla explains. “Generational Health is designed to prevent that. We want to protect their independence and ability to go back home stronger than they came to the hospital.”

When Margaret had first started visiting the emergency room for her gastrointestinal issues, a nurse called in the HAT team to pay a visit. Soto-Padilla and fellow nursing assistant Jesse Szakacs quickly formed a bond with her.

“It didn’t feel like some formal evaluation,” Margaret says. “It was like having two friends pay a visit. I told my daughter I had my own personal comedy team come see me in my room.”

Soto-Padilla and Szakacs would stop by to chat a few times a day, partly because it was enjoyable and partly to keep Margaret engaged between family visits. They also learned about Margaret’s day-to-day life at home and what mattered most to her, so they could replicate that as much as possible in the hospital.

“One example is sleep,” Soto-Padilla explains. “For patients who usually get a full night’s sleep at home, we’ll work with their care team to make sure tests are rescheduled so they are not disturbed from 10 pm through 6 am. For other patients who rely more on naps during the day, we’ll try to set that same schedule in the hospital, so they get their regular rest.”

Soto-Padilla quickly learned that Margaret is very social and likes to keep up with friends on her phone and through email. “If she was feeling a little bit down, I’d encourage her to make calls,” he says. “I’d say, ‘Hey — who haven’t you spoken to today? Let’s call them right now!’”

Laughing through recovery or recovery through laughing?

Over the next several months, Margaret built up strength for the surgery she needed.

The procedure went well, but Margaret knew she may need several days in the hospital to recover before going home. While she doesn’t like to complain, it was hard to feel as if she’d ever be as strong as she was before her surgery. Seeing Soto-Padilla and other HAT team members helped change that.

“They would come by regularly to check on me and see how I was doing,” she recalls. “By the next day, they started encouraging me to get up and go for walks. And they’d keep me laughing so much, I wouldn’t think about if I was strong enough to keep going. I wanted to keep walking because I was having so much fun!”

That first walk wasn’t far — just a few hundred feet. By her fourth day, the day she would go home, Margaret’s walks topped 1,000 feet.

“We don’t want our patients to get in the habit of not being active just because they’re in the hospital, because that could make them less active once they’re home,” Soto-Padilla says. “We saw that Margaret just needed a little encouragement. If we had fun, she could show how strong she really was and wouldn’t have to worry that she couldn’t be active anymore.”

Going to the hospital sometimes makes people think they’ve reached an age where they have to give up things they love, Soto-Padilla says. The team at Generational Health is there to let them know they can still live their best lives.

“I honestly think they helped me get better quicker,” Margaret reflects. “Sharp Memorial is a very special hospital to have a program like Generational Health.”

Register to join the Generational Health team at a free Active Aging Expo on October 21 in Kearny Mesa. Learn more about Generational Health at Sharp Memorial Hospital; get the latest health and wellness news, trends and patient stories from Sharp Health News; and subscribe to our weekly newsletter by clicking the "Sign up" link below.