Our
body can be compared to a car; without the right gasoline a car will not drive
well. Our heart is the tank that stores and distribute the gasoline, our blood.
When
we speak about heart disease I am on the front line of fearing it.
At
age ten, my father, then age 35, whom I adored and thought the world circled around
him, collapsed on our home's patio, while I was watching. He died on the way to
the hospital of a massive heart attack and left me and my younger sister orphans
of a dad. That crucial event impacted my life to a great extent. I certainly do
not want to see others go through the same trauma I lived through.
Jonathan
Schwartz, the founder of the HeartView Global Foundation has experienced the
loss of his childhood friend, Lawrence Krutman, at age 42, due to a heart
attack. Sharing his friend's passing with his doctor, the Doc suggested
Jonathan takes the coronary CT Angiogram, a non-invasive virtual image of the
human being coronary arteries, a test not covered by health insurance. The
result of that test revealed that he had a nearly 100% blockage in a large
coronary artery, which could have caused his death. That surreal moment drove Jonathan
to start his non-profit organization, HeartView Global Foundation, designated
to help improve, and possibility save, the lives of thousands of people.
On
Saturday, February 16, 2013, to a full auditorium, at the Four Seasons Hotel,
Westlake Village, California, Jonathan Schwartz, by his side his dedicated to
the cause wife, Meridith, have put together their foundation's second annual
gala, honoring Asher Kimchi, MD, the Founder and Chairman of the International Academy
of Cardiology and World Congress on Heart Disease, who received the
Foundation’s Award for Excellence in Early Detection and Prevention of
Cardiovascular Disease, and Diane Brinson, an entrepreneur, who encourages her
over 140 employees to rise to the occasion that charity is an obligation, not a
choice, by matching any contribution they make, dollar for dollar.
It
is appropriate to mention that Daniel Berman, MD, the director, Nuclear
Cardiology and Director, Cardiac Imaging at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center is HeartView
Global Foundation secretary who works diligently the expand the Foundation's
scope.
From L-Jonathan Schwartz, Dr. Asher Kimchi and Dr. Daniel Berman-Photo by Orly Halevy
The
audience's average age was 30-to-40, the Emcee, comedian Greg
Fitzsimmons and entertainment by country singer Joel Crouse and pop/rock
singer-songwriter-musician Richard Marx.
Among
the guest speakers was Mr. David Murdock, the chairman of Dole Food
Company, Inc., an avid proponent for healthy lifestyle. Adjacent to the
Dole worldwide headquarters in
Westlake Village, California is the Four Seasons Hotel & Spa, where
the gala took place, and the California Wellbeing Institute.
The
mission of the foundation, behind which Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in
Los Angeles firmly stands, is to identify heart disease in its latent
"clinically silent" phase, thereby allowing the individual to undertake
the necessary prophylactic lifestyle modifications and medications to
prevent the otherwise inevitable, the development of heart attack,
stroke, or premature sudden cardiac death.
Proceeds
from the events will benefit the Cedar-Sinai for cardiac imaging
research and to underwrite Cardiac CT Angiogram for patients needing
such assistance.
A secular man once asked a rabbi, 'where is God?' And the rabbi replied, 'in your heart.'
Your
heart is the center of your existence. Whatever it takes, whatever you
do, make the difference, help save life through HeartView Global Foundation: http://www.heartviewglobalfoundation.org/FrontPage.aspx
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