NEWS
Voice of maine
(vom 101.3 & 103.9)
REWIND: Mitchell & Bellows (Organ Donation)
Nov 26, 2024 - Bangor, ME. — Don Mitchell, a Vietnam-era veteran who received a heart and kidney transplant in 2012, and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, participated in a discussion on organ donation. Mitchell, now an ambassador for New England Donor Services at the Bangor Bureau of Motor Vehicles, shared his personal journey and emphasized the life-saving impact of organ donation. Secretary Bellows highlighted the importance of registering as an organ donor to provide hope and life to those awaiting transplants.
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Don Mitchell is on the HeartBrother's Board of Directors. Thank you, Don.
Fox 22 NEWs
(WFVX Bangor)
Public officials and organ donation advocates gather at Bangor BMV for organ donation awareness event
Nov 26, 2024 - Bangor, ME. — "On Tuesday, November 26, public officials and organ donation advocates gathered at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in Bangor to bring awareness to organ and tissue donations.
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"It's a heart right on your license that says I want to be an organ donor," said Don Mitchell, DMV Ambassador for the New England Organ Bank. "That to me is the most important thing you can do because you're sparing your family all that anguish of what to do in these situations."
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The federally designated organ procurement organization New England Donor Services (NEDS) hosted Tuesday's event inside Bangor's BMV to encourage folks to check yes and become an organ donor the next time they're applying for or renewing a driver's license..."
ocean state stories
Heart transplant saves life of Foster resident Tommy Hardiman
May 27, 2024 - FOSTER, RI. — "By late November 2022, Tommy Hardiman’s diseased heart was failing so badly that his medical team at Tufts Medical Center in Boston feared he could soon die. For months, Hardiman, a Foster resident, had been awaiting a heart transplant, a life-saving procedure that is unobtainable in Rhode Island. “They called and said ‘get in here, pack a bag, and do not drive yourself,’” recalled Hardiman, owner of Hillview Auto Body. “But I did. I felt confident enough.” A friend came for his car later. Hardiman, 69, had been on a waiting list for more than two years, but no donor heart had become available. The Tufts team would do all they could to keep him stable until one was found. If one was. The federal Health Resources & Services Administration, HRSA, reports that 17 Americans die every day waiting for an organ transplant."
Fox 22 News
(WFVX Bangor)
Newport Fire Dept. hosts CPR training to American Legion Post 105: 'This is saving lives'
Mar 14, 2024 - NEWPORT, Maine – "According to a study done by CPR Select, less than 20% of Americans are CPR-certified, and the nonprofit HeartBrothers Foundation wants to change that.The Newport Fire Department led a CPR training class for members of the Barrows Skidgel American Legion Post 105 in Newport.The class was sponsored by the nonprofit, which is comprised of volunteers who've received heart transplants..."
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*A big thank you to Don Mitchell, Transplant Survivor and HeartBrothers Board Member, for seeing the need and making it happen.
The quincy sun
'Quincy Police Officer to Host Fundraiser"
Feb 1, 2024 - QUINCY, Mass. — "Quincy police officer and recent heart transplant recipient Mike O’Brien will host a fundraiser on Feb. 4 to benefit The HeartBrothers Foundation (HBF). O’Brien, who underwent a successful heart transplant last August, has an impressive story of commitment and de- termination. He has served 26 years with the Quincy Police Department and served in the U.S. Marines. He has battled congestive heart failure since 2015..."
Globe Newswire
Cytokinetics Announces Recipients of Its Sixth Annual Communications Grant Program
Jan 30, 2024 - SAN FRANCISCO, Calif – "Cytokinetics, Incorporated (Nasdaq: CYTK) today announced the recipients of its sixth annual Communications Grant Program, intended to support increased capacity in communications, awareness building and community engagement.
Five grants in the amount of $20,000 each were awarded this year to patient advocacy organizations focused on the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), heart failure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) communities. The grants will support projects to increase access to resources, grow organizational reach and launch educational programs."
cbs news boston (wbz)
'Life-saving phone call helps Oxford man get to Boston hospital for heart transplant'
Nov 27, 2023 - OXFORD, Mass. — "A chance meeting led to a life-saving heart transplant for a man in Oxford, Massachusetts. "If it wasn't for Jay, I don't think I'd be here today and I mean that," David Kornwolf said of his new heart and the man who helped him get it, Jay Toland. Toland is a volunteer with the HeartBrothers Foundation in Marlboro, which provides resources for heart failure patients. "I got the call and I looked at my wife and she said 'Jay go, this what you do'," Toland told WBZ-TV."
BOSTON25 news
‘Massive heart failure’: Local transplant patient grateful for stranger who drove him to operation
OCT 17, 2023 - OXFORD, Mass. — "We all get by with a little help from our friends, so it can be a problem when none of them are around in an emergency. That’s what happened to David Kornwolf of Oxford when he got a call the heart he was desperately waiting for was suddenly available. "I had massive heart failure and there was nothing they could do. The inside of my heart was ripped apart,” he said. He needed a ride to Tufts Medical Center in Boston which is more than 50 miles from his home..."
BOSTON GLOBE
At his wife’s grave, he received a call that would save his life. A network of support stepped up soon after.
OCT 6, 2023 - "David Kornwolf was visiting his wife’s grave on a Sunday in early September when he received a call that would save his life.
But he didn’t know it — and hit decline. The call had come from Tufts Medical Center, and once doctors got a hold of him, Kornwolf heard the news he’d been desperate for: A heart for his much-needed transplant was available, if he could get from his home in Oxford to Boston immediately."
WCVB-TV 5 BOSTON
Boston man receives heart transplant after a 7-month hospital stay
MAY 3, 2023 - "A man who lived in a Boston hospital for seven months while waiting for a heart transplant has gone home after receiving a new lease on life.“I want to go lay on my bed. You know hospital beds are okay, you know, but they're not OK for seven months," Jay Toland said."
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Post-heart transplant, Jay has joined the HeartBrothers Patient Board of Advisors to help spread hope to other heart transplant patients on their own difficult journeys.
MARBLEHEAD CURRENT
Marbleheader with new heart has life-saving message: Be a hero
April 27, 2023 - "By sharing his incredible story of receiving a life-saving heart transplant, Marbleheader Gary Swain hopes to help others and spare families pain. “Sign up to donate your organs,” Swain said in an interview with the Marblehead Current coinciding with National Donate Life Month, which is observed in April. “Be a hero. Save somebody’s life.” Swain, who is 66, had suffered from irregular heart rhythms since he was a teenager. After an array of tests over the next few decades, his arrhythmia worsened, and he was eventually evaluated for cardiac transplantation. An avid outdoorsman and sailor, he continued to hike and sail. “I remember thinking, ‘If I drop dead out racing, what better way to go?’” he said.
lowell sun
After second heart transplant, Billerica’s Mark Cibulski, 38, still playing baseball, the game he loves
April 2, 2023 - "Mark Cibulski isn’t taking anything for granted as he returns to the baseball field. The Lowell Angels player/coach has given his heart and soul to the game – and has the battle scars to prove it. A Billerica native, Cibulski is making a comeback after enduring his second heart transplant four months ago. Thanks to a rigorous rehab regiment, he is ready to play ball again...”
Medical Stories
Strong Hearted – Heart Transplant
March 2, 2023 - "In this special episode of Medical Stories, we travel into the world of heart transplants and follow two families through their nerve-wracking journeys. With mere months to live, both Glenn and Jordan* went from being very sick to heart transplant recipients. Learn how they are doing today, and what they and their families went through when the call came with the news, “We have a heart for you”.
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Featuring renowned experts, Dr. Jacob Schroder, from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, and Dr. Maryjane Farr from Columbia University in New York, NY."
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*Glenn and Jordan are Team HeartBrothers members.
YOUTUBE
Cardiac patient back at the altar & on the ice
September 17, 2019 - "Father Gregory Souin, an Armenian Orthodox priest in Providence and avid hockey player, talks about how he underwent heart failure treatment, cardiac rehab, and a heart transplant at The Lifespan Cardiovascular Institute (LCVI) at Rhode Island Hospital.
GBH NEWS GREATER BOSTON
Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-Winning Song Touches Local Heart Recipient, Mother of Heart Donor
February 7, 2023 - "In one of a handful of unexpected moments at the 2023 Grammy Awards on Sunday, legendary guitarist and singer Bonnie Raitt won Best Song for Just Like That, which tells the story of a mother who donated her son's heart after he died, and her meeting with the man who received it... The song itself, a work of fiction, but Maine mother Charlene Slaver Roosevelt couldn't be more real. After her son Joey died in 2016, his organs were donated, and in 2017, she got a message from the man who received his heart, Hamid Mahdavy. Since then, the pair have become incredibly close. They both join me now to discuss. Hamid is also a member of the HeartBrothers Foundation: a Boston-based nonprofit to support heart failure patients and their loved ones..."
NEWS CENTER MAINE
Brewer's Passion for Fellow Heart Transplant Patients Beats Stronger Every Day
September 29, 2022 - "Tom Bull received a new heart nearly four years ago after his own couldn't pump enough blood and oxygen to support the rest of the organs in his body. That gift of life inspired the longtime brewer to become bullish on supporting other heart transplant recipients on their journeys to recovery... "
THE PATRIOT LEDGER
Golf Tournament Honors Duxbury Dad
July 29, 2022 - "The life of avid golfer and Duxbury resident Mike Gustin will be celebrated at the 6th annual Gustin Golf Classic from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 1 at the Marshfield Country Club, 515 Moraine St. Gustin battled heart disease for more than 20 years and the event raises money for the HeartBrothers Foundation, which supports people with heart failure and their families..."
THE PILOT
A Heart for the Game
June 18, 2022 - "With a wake-up call before 5 a.m. every morning, you won’t find Jordan Keshler moaning while tying his boots or grumbling on his commute to work at Barker Brook Golf Club in central New York. A passion for golf has Keshler working as course superintendent at the same course his parents once owned. That passion flows in his veins, and he has a new outlook on life — even that sunny pre-dawn disposition — thanks to a heart transplant that has the 41-year-old feeling lively on the links again..."
NBC Boston 10 News
MA Nonprofit Works to Bridge the Gap of Heart Health Inequity
May 30, 2022 - "Heart disease hits Black people at a higher rate than any other group in America, but it's a problem that doesn't need to exist and a local group is working to change the statistics. For Kyree Miller, the fight to help communities of color improve their heart health is very personal. He knows what it feels like to die..."
BOSTON 25 NEWS
Local Foundation Helping Families Find Housing Near Boston Hospitals
April 1, 2021 - "Transplant patients and their families go through a tremendous amount of stress figuring out all the logistics associated with such a big surgery. For example, many patients travel out of town to get to a hospital, which can perform this type of surgery. Karen Klimczak of Avon, Connecticut came to Tufts Medical Center to receive a heart transplant on New Year’s Eve..."
WCVB-TV 5 BOSTON
Foundation Supports Patients and Families During Transplant Process
February 16, 2021 - "When a loved one is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, family often wants to be close by. Geography can make that hard, so a local foundation found a solution, with a luxury apartment near every major Boston hospital..."
WCVB-TV 5 BOSTON
5 FOR GOOD: HeartBrothers Foundation
January 30, 2020 - "Larry Williams and Mike Ashworth met in the hardest of circumstances. Williams was in need of a heart transplant and was too sick to leave Tufts Medical Center. Ashworth, a volunteer with the HeartBrothers Foundation, paid him a visit... 'We have firsthand experience of what happens to your body, what happens to your mind,' Ashworth said. All HeartBrothers volunteers, which include women, are survivors of Heart Failure which is a chronic, progressive condition. Ashworth had already had a heart transplant when he met Williams..."
WCVB-TV 5 BOSTON
Heart Transplant Patient Who Counseled Others Finally Going Home
September 6, 2017 - "There will be a lot of bittersweet tears Thursday at Tufts Medical Center, where a patient who waited more than a year for a heart transplant will be discharged. On his last full day in the hospital, one of Larry Williams’ best friends dropped by to say thank you..."
