Imagine hosting Thanksgiving for your dad for the first time in your life, seeing him one day, and then receiving a text from him the next day after he's flown home informing you that he's experienced a heart attack and is currently in the emergency room.

 

Now imagine anxiously waiting to hear back from your dad or family about the condition of the man you just saw less than 24 hours ago, completely able and well. Imagine being told that your dad was to undergo emergency heart valve replacement surgery immediately, to save his life. 

Imagine being told that this terror filled, anxiety fueled fate, was written in the stars from his very conception. He'd been born with an underdeveloped aeortic valve and had known his entire life that this sickness was a possibility. Imagine this sickness being imbedded in your DNA for 3 generations and feeling terrified because you have no idea what this means for you and your family.

 

Imagine not knowing what you could possibly do to help your family, to help yourself. Imagine your dad not being able to SURVIVE if there had not been explicit and immersive research done on our hearts and preserving their functions. Imagine being closely protected by the studies and funding from a group that you never really once even considered acknowledging.

 

Imagine being me for a second. 

My dad would not be alive without the research and know how of the healthcare professionals and scientific minds behind his treatment for his entire journey. 

My dad was able to make one of the speediest recoveries that anyone in his hospital had ever seen! His journey isn't over but we are all changed and grateful.