It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. And it happened to Wanda. “I think we need to go to the hospital!” She remembers telling her husband. The next thing Wanda knew, the ER staff was telling her she had four blockages in her heart that required immediate surgery. It was scary, but the surgery was successful. What Wanda didn’t know, however, was that the most frightening part of this nightmare was yet to come. While still in her hospital bed, Wanda got an unexpected call from her boss. “I have to let you go,” he said. Cue the panic. Follow-up care is crucial to recovery for patients like Wanda. Of those fortunate enough to survive a heart failure episode, one in four will be back in the hospital within 30 days without proper follow-up care.
Wanda was suddenly on her own recovering from a heart attack with no job, no health insurance and therefore no critical cardiac care.
After six months, bills were piling up with no relief in sight. “I felt sad and without hope,” Wanda explains. “I knew that I needed care, but I didn’t think we had any options.”
One day Wanda’s husband pulled her out of bed. “We’re going to see a doctor. I know of a clinic that might be able to take you, so we’re going to start there.”
That clinic was the Trina Hidalgo Heart Care Center. This is where you come in.
AdventHealth's Trina Hidalgo Heart Care Center, formerly Florida Hospital’s Trina Hidalgo Heart Care Center, is the only free, comprehensive cardiac clinic in Central Florida for uninsured and underserved patients. This clinic gives patients free treatment, education, medication assistance and access to other community resources.
And the Trina Hidalgo Heart Care Center is funded by people like you.
This is why you are so important.
“While [the nurse] was talking to my husband, tears were just flowing out of my eyes. She asked me why I was crying and I said, ‘You cared so much for me… I’ve never experienced this before.’"
It's a godsend, I am just so grateful.
Someday, no one will go without the care they need, and that day starts today with you. Thank you for your generosity.
