Tragedy produces hope.
Sisters' deaths lead to foundation dedicated to health education.
By SHARON DETTMER, Tribune Correspondent
 
Marcia Vermilye, R.N., and director of cardiovascular services at LaPorte Regional Health System shares a moment with Jim Clarke, founder of 2 BigHearts Foundation, during a recent free women's heart screening program at LaPorte Hospital. Tribune Photo/SHARON DETTMER

LAPORTE -- Gigi Clarke, 44, and her sister, Sally Czechanski, 49, were as different as night and day. Gigi was a real estate appraiser. She was a golfer and outdoor enthusiast. "She was a tumbler," says her husband, Jim Clarke of Long Beach, Ind. She had good endurance, and rarely went to the doctor, he adds. Sally sold fabrics, and loved interior designing. She was an avid shopper, and enjoyed city-life.

Sally was the "ultimate healthcare consumer," Jim Clarke says.
They shared the events of their lives daily via phone calls, sometimes up to three a day. But the sisters shared something else that was life-threatening and invisible called cardiomyopathy -- enlarged heart muscles that, left undiagnosed, can cause heart attacks. Sally was building a new home in New Buffalo in June 2004, and had traveled to Lexington, Ky., on business. Her life was busy. It was in Lexington that she suffered a major cardiac event and was hospitalized. Gigi and Jim Clarke rushed to Lexington to be by her side. One day later, Gigi became seriously ill and was hospitalized in critical care, right next to her sister. Jim was devastated in the days following. Sally and Gigi died 90 minutes apart on June 25, 2004, from fatal heart attacks related to cardiomyopathy. "Both of them had complete access to health care, but their heart conditions were not diagnosed," Jim says.

Kathy Richards, cardiovascular R.N., left, Monica Ashcraft, cardiovascular technician, and Pat Adrian, registered echo-sonographer, assist patient Mary Ford of Knox during a heart screening at LaPorte Hospital recently.

Jim began 2 BigHearts Foundation in 2004 to educate women and their families about heart disease. "We look every day to try to find more ways to share Gigi and Sally's story. We want women to become educated healthcare consumers," Jim says. To achieve that goal, the foundation has partnered with LaPorte Regional Health to offer free life-saving heart screenings to residents from across the region. LaPorte Hospital Foundation, Women's HeartAdvantage Program, Wellness Resource Center, cardiovascular services and other hospital departments, partnered with 2 BigHearts Foundation to educate women about heart disease prevention. The program, held recently at LaPorte Hospital, provided screenings of body fat, glucose and cholesterol levels, an ankle brachial index test (to check for vascular disease in lower extremities) a full EKG and partial ultrasound to check heart value function. This is the third women's heart-screening held at LaPorte Hospital in conjunction with Clarke's foundation, which has benefited more than 350 women. Doctors volunteered their time to evaluate test results and make physician referrals and/or recommendations to patients based on information derived from the heart screenings. The hospital's cardiology technicians, cardiac diagnostic sonographers, and registered nurses helped make the screenings a success, according to Marcia Vermilye, R.N. and director of cardiovascular services. "Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States," Jim explains. "If these tests had been done for Gigi and Sally, they would both be alive today." Through tragedy, hope is born, he says.

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For further information about 2BigHearts Foundation, visit their Web site at www.2BigHearts.org. To learn more about Women's HeartAdvantage call (219) 326-2600, or visit www.laportehealth.org