My cousin, Sadie Brust, is why the American Heart Association is important to me. She was born on October 6, 2018. None of us knew at that time, but we found out over the next few days that she was born with a rare heart defect. Sadie has a mitral valve that doesn't function properly as it allows blood to flow back into the heart. Before she was one month old she had open heart surgery in an effort to fix it. The doctors tried putting a patch on the flap to strengthen it, but it didn't help. Even though the surgery wasn’t successful, Sadie is a fighter. We celebrated her first birthday in October of last year. She now takes 7 different medicines daily and they are currently monitoring her while she grows. The goal is to get her to the size where they will do another open heart surgery and put in a mechanical valve to replace her mitral valve.
We all love her very much and had a big celebration for her first birthday this past October. Sadie is my reason why I would be honored for you to join the fight against heart disease and help me raise money for the 2020 Tulsa Heart Ball.
