I have 3 why's for why I participate in the Heart Walk and help the AHA fundraise for research:

 

1. James DiStefano - my grandfather passed away from an aeortic dissection in his 70's. An avid tennis player, no one expected it. It was a very dramatic experience as my family was abroad and was fighting to make it home in time. We were very close and I named our son James "Jamie" after him.

 

2. Emory Salasin - my daughter has a left ventricle that attaches backwards, which was discovered at our 20-week ultrasound in 2019 and she was born with a hole in her heart. I'm grateful for Dr. Carothers and the HVI team for checking her out in utero and making sure everything healed ok once she was born. Keeping a 3 month old still for an ultrasound is quite the task! Emory is 5 now and loves gymnastics.

 

3. Judy Distefano - my aunt suffered a heart attack in 2023 and luckily my uncle happened to be home to immediately start CPR. We lost her a couple more times in the ambulance and the outlook was not great. She ended up making a full recovery, but had to learn to walk and talk again. If my uncle did not know CPR, she never would have met her 4th grandchild, Elizabeth. We lost her in Feb 2025 to cancer and were so grateful for that time with her.

 

One of the coolest things about participating in this regularly, is that I have been able to see our good work come to life - not only from research becoming technology in my hospitals, but also with our help LCS was able to install CPR kits in all of our schools last year. This is a full circle moment as Emory started Kindergarten this year... Go huskies!

 

I Walk to Save Lives. Help me reach my goal today.​