NUMC Celebrates Go Red Day with Opening of Heart Center

Honoring American Heart Disease Awareness month, in East Meadow kicked off their “Go Red Campaign Against Heart Disease for Women” on Friday morning. Guests, hospital officials, patients and a keynote speaker gathered to bring awareness to the growing issue of heart disease in women and the opening of a new heart center.

“Go Red was established to eliminate very stark disparities between men, women and heart disease,” said Sanjay Doddamani, MD, Chairman of NUMC’s Department of Cardiology. “When you poll women, they are still under the notion that the number one killer in women is breast cancer. It is not breast cancer.”

According to Dr. Doddamani, every minute a woman dies of heart disease in the United States and every 39 seconds a woman is admitted to the hospital with a heart attack. More women die of heart disease than any form of cancer.

Bianca Jamotte, NUMC’s new Go Red Ambassador, who has been featured on Woman’s Entertainment Television and a variety of soap operas, shared her family experiences of dealing with heart failure and other problems in her keynote address. She emphasized the importance of taking preventative measures in order to ensure good heart health.

“We, as sisters, should be talking to each other about the signs, how to recognize heart disease and how to prevent it,” she said. 

“You don’t necessarily associate heart disease with woman, but you do with men,” NuHealth CEO Arthur Gianelli said. “Maybe it is not talked about as much, but it is real and it is there.”

In addition to recognizing heart disease as the largest cause of death among women over the age of 25, the hospital held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new heart failure and arrhythmia center. This center will be able to provide the underserved community a way to battle heart problems and failure, something that wasn’t available at NUMC before.

To form the center, NuHealth worked with North Shore-LIJ to integrate their cardiology programs together, providing a better variety of resources. This was a bold move for the health care organization and has provided extremely beneficial financial situations and a new level of cardiac care that is now available, Gianelli said.

Patients of NUMC’s cardiology department expressed their appreciation for the center and all it has done to help with their heart issues. Levittown resident Anne Marie Ballato, a patient ambassador, gave a moving recollection of her experience with the hospital staff. When she first came to NUMC, she was pregnant, facing serious heart issues and had no insurance. Clinics would not see her because of the severity of her condition, but Dr. Doddamani and his staff at NUMC were able to help. They championed for her and her unborn child’s care, and provided treatment for her illness.

“People had suggested termination, it was down to me or the baby at that point,” Ballato said in regards to being pregnant with her heart condition. “I was turned away from hospitals for not having money to pay with ahead of time. If I was in any other hospital I would not have made it.”

Ballato had a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted, which would not have been possible without the joint commitment from NuHealth and North Shore-LIJ in the new heart failure and arrhythmia center. She is currently monitored by Dr. Doddamani at the hospital. Her daughter, Izabella, is a healthy nine months old.

“If you look at the communities we serve--higher prevalence of heart failure, higher incidence of readmission heart failure and higher death rates--the disparities are remarkable,” Steven Walerstein, MD, said. “That is the real purpose of the center--the disparities in gender, in socioeconomic groups and racial groups--to insure that the reality of true access to the highest level of health care is for all."

Simple steps can be taken to prevent heart disease, including maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, quitting smoking, drinking in moderation and routine doctor visits.

“This occasion is really for all of use to be agents of change--to go out there and get the message out that women need to be as aware of heart disease as men are,” Doddamani said.