WHAT: “Dress Smart for a Healthy Heart,” a fashion show that features women treated for various forms of heart disease. These courageous survivors seek to teach other women, and the men in their lives, the importance of treating symptoms early and the hope provided by today’s treatments.
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27
WHERE: Auditorium at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Campus), 7703 Floyd Curl Drive
WHO: 10 survivors; UT Health Science Center faculty cardiologists Janet Hays, M.D., and Steven Bailey, M.D. One of the women is Michele Gorden, a 42-year-old dental hygienist at the UT Health Science Center who had a sudden artery blockage causing a heart attack two years ago. Another survivor, Jacquelyn Dupree, 67, had an enlarged heart and was very ill last year. The week she was listed for a heart transplant, two hearts became available to her. She received a transplant Dec. 5, 2007 and is doing very well today.
NOTES: Sponsors are the UT Health Science Center, the University Health System and the Health Science Center’s Janey Briscoe Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research (Dr. Bailey is the director). The fashion show and reception are free and open to the public.
Dr. Bailey will discuss the importance of awareness in women in the community. Dr. Hays will give information about heart disease and introduce each woman with a vignette of how she developed heart disease, treatments and her present condition. The survivors have had valve surgery, open-heart surgery, bypass surgery, angioplasty, defibrillator implantation and heart transplant. The youngest is in her early 40s.
The University Health System generously donated $1,000 to provide each of the survivors with a $100 gift card to Dillard’s.
ALSO: In a separate awareness event, cardiology nurse practitioners Alina Matutes-Eckhardt and Gwen Stewart Reyes from the UT Health Science Center will be at Dillard’s in North Star Mall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22. At a table in the lingerie section, the nurses will help women understand the importance of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference measurements and will offer free measurements in a private setting. Shoppers will partake of free healthy snacks. Each woman will receive a sheet of information on heart disease with numbers written at the bottom to take to her physician.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.