Advocate Stories

Breanna Sudano, Maryland

On September 27, 2011, two weeks before my 14^th birthday, while playing in a field hockey game for my high school, I collapsed and went into sudden cardiac arrest.  Two coaches recognized that I was not breathing and without hesitation, immediately started CPR. 

I was also very fortunate that there were three parents at the game, who happened to be nurses, who took over performing CPR for the two coaches.  Between the five of them, they performed CPR on me for over 7 minutes until the ambulance came and used a defibrillator to administer the shock needed to reset my heart.  If not for them performing CPR, my family was told I most likely would not have survived and that because the coaches started CPR immediately, I suffered no brain or organ damage. 

These five women will forever be my heroes.  Because of them, I am one of the fortunate ones who fall into the eight percent of people who survive a sudden cardiac arrest event outside of the hospital.  I was diagnosed with an anomalous coronary artery, which is a congenital birth defect and underwent open heart surgery.  That's my cardiologist, Dr Gaskin, with me in the picture below.  Without detection of this defect, it was inevitable that at some point in my life, I was going to suffer a sudden cardiac arrest event. 

Since then, I’ve been able to participate in You’re the Cure to help encourage legislators to support more people learning CPR.  I’m especially interested in the bill to train students in CPR before they graduate from high school.  Our community needs as many CPR-trained people as we can get! 

I was very lucky that when this did happen, there were five people trained in CPR who saved my life.  Through this life changing experience, I have learned that life is truly a blessing and to appreciate every single minute.  Not everyone will be as lucky as I was.  If more people were trained in CPR, the survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest would increase and more lives would be saved.

Paula and Ella Marie Hatten West Virginia

On May 6, 2011, our beautiful daughter, Ella Marie, was born. On May 7th, we found out Ella Marie was among the 1 in 100 children born with a congenital heart defect. Ella's CHD is called Tetralogy of Fallot and required her to have open heart surgery at 8 weeks old. She also will need more corrective surgeries in the future.

Of all the worries that new parents have, our daughter having a CHD was not even on our radar. We had never heard of Tetralogy of Fallot or any other CHD for that matter. We did not know any warning signs to look for or any questions to ask our doctor. Our goal as a family is to raise more awareness of congenital heart defects.

We were very happy about Corbin's Bill passing and West Virginia being one of the first states that will now require Pulse Ox to be included in newborn screenings. Our family and friends participated in the Charleston American Heart Walk on September 8th in honor of Ella and hope to do much more to raise awareness for Ella and her other heart warriors!

Lisa Hamrick West Virginia

I remember riding with my parents and sisters in our station wagon as we made our way to my grandparents' house in Euclid, Ohio. I was going to be entering the Cleveland Clinic in a few days for heart surgery. We were fortunate that my Mom's parents lived so close to the Clinic. I was 19 years old at the time and had just completed my junior year of college--it was the summer of 1983.

I had what I would call the typical childhood growing up in the 1970s. I remember playing outside for hours and riding our bikes all over the neighborhood. And who could forget those pogo sticks we all had to have? I don't remember when I started experiencing issues with my heart, only that in junior high I passed out during a choir concert.  I recall being told not to stand with your knees locked.

I graduated from high school and began my college life at Alderson-Broaddus College. I began feeling very tired all the time so my Dad got an appointment for me with his cardiologist. You see, Dad has lived with heart disease his entire adult life. Dad's cardiologist examined me and did an echocardiogram in his office and could tell right away what my problem was. I had patent ductus arteriosus.  PDA is a condition in which a blood vessel, called the ductus arteriosus, fails to close normally in an infant soon after birth. This condition leads to heart murmur, as well as abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery. The doctor said my heart was working harder than it should due to the abnormal blood flow. I had been living with this problem since birth! At that time, no one in WV was performing surgical repair of PDA in adults, so my journey to Cleveland began.

I realize now that I was fortunate to survive with the condition undetected for so long. The surgery went well and I spent a few weeks at my grandparents' house recuperating. That was almost 30 years ago.

I tell my story in hopes of raising awareness in women that heart disease is not just a man's disease. We as women are the caretakers and superwomen who do it all at home and at work and we tend  to put ourselves last. You must take care of your heart so you will be around to receive all that love you give brought back to you!

Ashley and Crystal Pennsylvania

Crystal Hosey is an energetic and delightful 4-year-old who was born with a heart defect. At first, the hospital pediatrician thought she had a heart murmur but at Crystal’s one week checkup with her regular pediatrician he thought it was something more serious. After testing, it was determined that Crystal was born with only three of her four heart valves. She underwent her first surgery in July of 2007. Doctors put a conduit (a small tube like piece of plastic) in her heart to replace the valve that was missing. This is a temporary fix and as Crystal grows the conduit will not grow with her, so she will continue to need surgeries.

Crystal has undergone two open heart surgeries and about 10 heart catheterizations. As her symptoms are seldom seen, Crystal’s cardiologist says she is the most atypical child he has seen with a heart defect and she currently has no restrictions or medications. She is a very active young lady, attends preschool, is a YIFA cheerleader and participated in a community pageant.

Ruth Caruthers West Virginia

Corbin Walker Caruthers was born 364 days after his older brother Colton. I had a "normal" pregnancy, regular checkups, and when my water broke the morning after Colton's first birthday, I went into the hospital expecting hours of labor and a healthy baby. I ended up having a last minute c-section and what looked like a healthy baby, but the doctor informed me that Corbin had a heart murmur.

We were scheduled for an echo a couple days later. The first echo was inconclusive, so we were to come back two days later for another. This time, we were given the full diagnosis: Corbin had life threatening heart defects and needed to heart surgery to save his life. Five hours later, Corbin was in Ruby Memorial hospital awaiting surgery.

Three months later, three heart surgeries, and countless IV's and medications later, Corbin's heart stopped. It was about 8:45 on May 17th when they called us to say they were giving him CPR and we needed to come quickly. We watched as a team of doctors and nurses tried their hardest to save Corbin, but it was too late. 

Corbin's story does not end there. A few months after he passed away, I teamed up with two heart moms and the American Heart Association to introduce a bill that would require every newborn in WV to be tested for heart defects. Corbin's Bill passed in a record three months. The hospital where he was born implemented pulse ox screening August 1st, 2012, and many more are to follow. Corbin's story continues on and through his legacy, we are saving lives. 

Anne Donaway Delaware

At 30 years old, my only concern in life should have been raising my two young children. The signs were there but ignored for a while. Even as a Respiratory Therapist I had to be persuaded to go to the doctor. After kindly being told it was "anxiety" and that it was the stressors of raising a family and working, I was finally diagnosed with a PFO that had grown so large that I was not getting enough oxygen to my brain. After an attempted patch closure that failed, open heart via robotics was performed.

From that point on I was determined to make a difference by raising awareness in my community. Three years post-op I have been going so strong that I went on monthly adventures. Showing all that anything is possible. This past February and March I suffered two CVAs. Slowly but surely I have bounced back again even more determined. I run almost daily and in a couple of months will be running races. As soon as I'm cleared by physicians I will plan my greatest adventure. To my amazement even my co-workers have never seen a Stroke victim as young as myself and many are hard to convince without questioning.

I have started to educate other stroke and open heart survivors via a blog, newspaper and a magazine article. I'm trying my best to become an example that with knowledge and will power, anything is achievable. I don't want others to be diagnosed with "anxiety" and am determined to show that stroke and heart disease can happen at any age. Lastly, my now 8 year old son has been diagnosed with an ASD that is being considered for surgery. I want choices for him and I want answers. I fight for him!

Stephanie Bochenek Kentucky

I’m Stephanie Bochenek, a 22 year old Kentucky resident, originally from Hamilton, ON. I recently graduated from Michigan State University, where I was a five year student-athlete. All my life I have had a passion for sports, usually playing multiple sports at once, including soccer, basketball, track, badminton, and volleyball. In my first four years at Michigan State, I rowed on the varsity rowing team and my fifth year I threw javelin. I have always thought that I was living a “healthy” lifestyle, but last summer I was diagnosed with a heart defect and I realized that some things you just can’t control.
 
I have a bicuspid aortic valve, which is a heart defect I was born with.  This is when the aortic valve only has two leaflets that open and close each beat instead of the normal three leaflets. The doctors also found that my aortic root was big enough to be considered an aneurysm, so I was scheduled for a CT scan and told to stop doing anything strenuous. Everything I do revolves around strenuous activities and training, but for those three weeks I thought that I would never be able to do the things that I love to do again. You can imagine how hard it would be to have everything you’ve worked so hard for and all the dreams you have for the future taken away from you in an instant. I started thinking about ways I could stay involved in sports, especially in rowing as a coach. When I left the clinic after my test and diagnosis, I immediately decided to leave everything up to God. Doing that helped me find peace and strength in my reality.

This past year, since my diagnosis, my life has been amazing in many ways. The CT results showed that the current stage of my condition wasn’t as bad as originally thought, so I was cleared to continue what I was doing before. I feel so blessed to be able to keep doing what I love despite my condition. After I was cleared, I was able to work everything out to join the track team at Michigan State and throw javelin.
This experience has helped me become more aware that so many people are born every day with heart defects.  Some may never know it, but a lot of them will have to fight every day to live because their defects are so severe that they require surgery and other treatments, even at a very young age.

What am I doing in Kentucky, you ask? Well, long story short, I moved down here in August to hopefully find a job in Richmond because, for some reason I don’t know, I felt like this was where my next step was. I decided that I wouldn’t know if it was true unless I came here and gave it a shot.

Anthony Campagna Ohio

I am a proud supporter of AHA and with good reason. When I graduated from high school in 2000, I was almost 300 lbs. I was unhealthy, unhappy, and antisocial. I blamed myself for my condition; every diet I tried failed and I took it personally.

I started college in August 2000 and that first year of college changed my life. I took a health class that was graphic to say the least. We were taught about heart disease, some of its causes, and shown nasty pictures of what a poor diet can do to your heart. The second part of that class taught us nutrition. I learned I could eat good stuff and still lose weight. After this, my life was never the same. I started an exercise class, renovated my diet, and the pounds just went from there.

I am happy to say that I was down to 150 lbs in 2005 and am now 175 lbs. after some weight training. I attribute this weight loss to education. AHA provides education and resources to people; that is absolutely vital. I have happily participated in the local Heartwalk and donated money to AHA for almost 11 years now. Education helped add years to my life and that is what AHA is doing for people everyday.

Jana Venable Kentucky

On October 5, 2010, one day before my 44th birthday, I went to the emergency room with severe back pain.  Little did I know that week, when I was feeling so bad and having symptoms of fatigue, pressure, and headache, my aorta was dissecting from my brain stem to my kidneys. 

I was diagnosed with thoracic and abdominal dissections, and my family was informed that the chance of me surviving was less than 5%.  However, through God's grace, and a large team of talented surgeons, doctors and nurses, I survived a 10 hour aortic surgery, and was diagnosed with Malignant Hypertension (severe high blood pressure).  With the research done in vascular surgery, the advances in technology for quicker diagnosis, and the advances in blood pressure medicines available, they were able to miraculously save my life. 

I had a history of high blood pressure, but quit taking medicine thinking I could control it with diet and exercise.  If there is one thing I would stress the most through this venue is that it is extremely important to check your blood pressure, and follow your doctors orders about medication and treatment.  As it stands today (2 years later), my aorta has started to go back down to normal size due to the advances in blood pressure medicine, and I am back to walking 3-5 miles, exercising, and excited every day to be alive to see my daughters.

Bruce Adkins West Virginia

OK… I had lost 30 pounds, was walking, exercising daily, and was getting “fitter."  I had even just been to Alaska and done a mountain hike the week prior, attended a Cincinnati Reds game with my family and walked several miles 3 days before, on my 59^th birthday!  But on May 24^th, while attending a regional playoff high school baseball game, I began having nausea and abdominal pain.  I shrugged this off as “eating something bad” earlier in the day, but the severe nausea didn’t go away.  I really didn’t have typical symptoms of a heart attack.

I was in good shape, was not obese, and recent lab work and physical didn’t point to any cardiovascular issues. I do have a strong family history of heart disease. With my symptoms actually getting a little worse, I chose to drive home from the game (at this point I really wasn’t considering calling 911 or going to the hospital).  However, on the way home I became more ill and started having some diaphoresis and left shoulder chest pain.  I thought, “GOSH! This could be my heart!”  

So, after taking 3 aspirin I happened to have in the car and being just about 5-6 minutes away, I chose to drive myself to the local cardiac hospital.  After some excitement in the ER, I was rushed to the cath lab where my right coronary artery was found to be 90 percent occluded and in severe spasm. I am now the proud owner of a 30 mm stent! 

I have just walked in my first Heart Walk with many new friends and family!  I am blessed (and lucky) to be completing cardiac rehabilitation and have significantly increased my stamina and exercise tolerance. I just celebrated my granddaughter’s first birthday, and am planning for many more!  My story is another one about doing many things wrong and still surviving. I hope with education and advances in medicine, more people will survive and live wonderful lives.