With a focus on raising funds to support AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute along with other areas within AdventHealth, Golden Gala XXXIX included an elite Golf Championship at Disney’s Palm and Magnolia Golf Courses. The largest fundraising event in Central Florida, held on November 24–25, 2019, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, featured an exclusive performance by Lady Antebellum, an extravagant three-course meal, plus live and silent auctions.
The community gathered together at Golden Gala XXXIX to raise an astounding $1.7M in support of creating a first-of-its-kind Vascular Center of Excellence, benefiting pediatric and adult patients at AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute. The new vascular program can help detect, protect and treat patients before a possibly life-threatening incident occurs.
Vascular Disease and It’s Effects on Your Life
It’s important to raise awareness for vascular disease, as it can strike anyone, at any age and at any time. Whether you’re 18 or 48, symptoms can appear and worsen before you even know what’s happening. Hear from local community members who have suffered from vascular diseases to learn why Central Florida needs a vascular screening program that’s accessible to all, along with a multi-functional operating room for critical vascular diseases.
“If we can identify who’s at risk, we can help manage those risks, prevent negative outcomes and treat patients when needed,” said physician Dr. Alan Wladis, who emphasized during the gala that vascular disease is the costliest disease in America. He stated that stroke care costs $34B annually in the United States, with 140,000 people dying each year from stroke. Every 40 seconds, someone in America is having a stroke and the after-effects can include the inability to talk, walk or use certain functions of the body.
Vice President of AdventHealth’s Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, Kimberly Bell, shared that 1M people in America live with limb loss related to a vascular incident. “Not only can we advance in prevention with our new Vascular Center of Excellence, we can care for more complex, emergency cases by creating a new vascular hybrid operating room where we can save 1,000 more lives a year from catastrophic life-threatening emergency procedures,” Bell said. Adding, “One of the biggest procedures that would benefit from a new hybrid operating room would be limb salvage surgeries.”
Complete Cardiovascular Care
Vascular treatments transferred to AdventHealth Orlando’s Quaternary Center have increased 35% from 2017 to 2019 and are expected to continue to rise, calling on the need for AdventHealth’s first Vascular Center of Excellence that can offer programs such as Dare to C.A.R.E. with potentially life-saving, vascular disease screenings to our local community members at risk.
On a mission to heal the heart, vessels, lungs and human spirit, AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute currently has locations across Central Florida where we are a leading partner in cardiovascular health. Here you’ll find innovative treatment, wellness guidance and new friends to lean on. Our experts specialize in:
- Adult congenital heart disease
- Advanced heart failure and transplant
- Coronary artery disease
- General cardiology
- Heart rhythm disorders
- Interventional cardiology
- Minimally invasive valve replacement
- Open heart surgery
- Pediatric heart health
- Vascular surgery
If you’re interested in donating to the cause in support of AdventHealth Heart, Lung and Vascular Institute, click here. Together, we can continue our mission of extending the healing ministry of Christ by saving more lives from vascular diseases, preventing limb loss and providing life-saving technology for the most advanced vascular surgeries.
We’d like to thank the following sponsors for supporting AdventHealth and the role they played in making Golden Gala XXXIX a huge success.
