Local restauranteur Gianni Piccolino survived a life-threatening case of COVID-19 in 2020 thanks to emergency surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital. On February 13, he and his wife Dianna, their three kids, along with Gianni’s brother and business partner Tommy, found a perfect way to express their gratitude–preparing and giving out dozens of pizzas and salads too–all this, about a year to the date of his discharge.
Enjoying the more spring like weather too, appreciative hospital staff formed a line outside the portable wood burning pizza oven Mr. Piccolino brought in from his two Mount Kisco restaurants, Stone Fire and Basilico.
Dianna Piccolino told the Inside Press: “Everything was going wrong, but Northern Westchester Hospital brought in a special surgeon to find out what was going on inside, and they were able to repair it. We are all just so grateful.”
Mrs. Piccolino said that this was not the first time Northern Westchester Hospital saved her family either–her twins were born premature and cared for in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
“They have been just extraordinary to us,” she said.
“Pizza and salad is up for grabs all day today, and we will be back tonight for the night shift!”
Mr. Piccolino, who generously fed first-responders at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, was admitted to Northern Westchester Hospital days before Thanksgiving, 2020, with a life-threatening case of COVID-19. He spent two months in an induced coma. On Christmas Eve, Mr. Piccolino underwent emergency surgery made necessary by an additional diagnosis of sepsis due to a perforated stomach ulcer; happily, just one day before his birthday on February 12, 2021, he was able to return home.
