On Sunday, September 28th, there was a very special event planned by one of our Myocarditis Foundation’s Directors, Giustina Schiano.
Giustina lost her adult son 10 years ago suddenly to Viral Myocarditis. She knew nothing about this disease that took her only child and vowed to do whatever she could to raise awareness of and funding for research so that others may not suffer as she has.
The King of Hearts Fundraiser welcomed almost 150 attendees, with 35 of them never hearing about Myocarditis or attending one of her fundraisers before. As usual, Giustina’s event was an enormous success.
The Guest Speakers were :
Dr. Leslie Cooper, Chair of the Cardiovascular Department at the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, and Co-Founder and Medical Director of the Myocarditis Foundation.
Dr. Dor Lotan, Founder and Director of the Pericarditis / Myocardial Disease Center at Columbia University, Irving Medical Center at NY Presbyterian Hospital. He is also a Director on the Myocarditis Foundation Board of Directors.
They both spoke about why the Foundation needs the support of others in the fight to end this disease.
The Annual Global Burden of Disease is 1.3 million cases of Myocarditis.
In the U.S. there are 50,000 – 100,000+ cases of Myocarditis correctly diagnosed, and there is not currently a medical treatment for it. They believe that the number is far greater as many cases are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.
This also holds true for Pericarditis. 30% of Acute Pericarditis patients will develop Recurrent Pericarditis due to misdiagnosis or inadequate therapy, either by underdiagnosed, stopped too soon therapy, or non-compliance of patients with the therapy provided.
Awareness and Education of others on the diseases is key for patients to understand and obtain the appropriate treatments to allow proper healing to occur.
The highlight of the evening was the awarding of the 102 beautiful baskets that were assembled by a team of volunteers from the multitude of items that were donated.
Everyone left happy after a tremendous 5 course meal even if they did not win a basket!
They also learned a lot about Myocarditis and Pericarditis to share with others.
Thank you Giustina for all that you do to help raise awareness for the diseases, and funding for another research grant, in her son’s name, from the Myocarditis Foundation.
