Raises Awareness About Women’s Health-Elizabeth Bracken Thompson Honored
Girls Night Out Emcee WCBS-TV Anchor Mary Calvi and Honoree Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson with patients and healthcare providers
Girls’ Night Out, a heartwarming evening featuring tributes to heart disease survivors and their caregivers, was held Feb. 15 at The Sleepy Hollow Hotel in Tarrytown. WCBS-TV news anchor Mary Calvi emceed the event with proceeds benefiting the Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s (WMCHealth) Heart & Vascular Institute, which offers comprehensive cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery and vascular surgery services, as well as WMCHealth’s new five-story Critical Care Tower now under construction. A sellout crowd of over 400 attended.
Foundation Board member Elizabeth Bracken Thompson received the WMCHealth Foundation’s 1st Community Champion Award. Bracken-Thompson is a partner with the award-winning public relations firm of Thompson & Bender in Briarcliff Manor and a long time WMCHealth supporter. The evening also included dining, dancing and a videotaped fashion show featuring healthcare providers and patients modeling fashions from fashion designer Beverley Olivacce, the event’s exclusive fashion partner. Other sponsors included Macy’s; Cross County Shopping Center and M&T Bank.
Heart disease is still the number one killer of women in the United States, causing 1 in 3 deaths or approximately one every minute.
Gabbie Fried, RN, Vice President of Cardiovascular Services with WMCHealth’s Heart & Vascular Institute said that 80 percent of heart diseases and strokes are preventable.
“Through education and screening and by developing a personalized plan to reduce risk factors and encourage exercise and healthy eating, our Cardiovascular Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program works to head off potential heart problems. The program has seen successful results, and we are seeing more patients than last year,’’ she said.
This year’s fashion show featured patients that included Jake Amoroso, a New York Police Department officer, whose successful surgery allowed him to become a member of the force, 15-year-old Mia Santana who came here from the Dominican Republic with her mother to undergo lifechanging heart repair, and young siblings Gabriel (8) and Rei (4), who received treatment for congenital heart issues.
