Open Your Heart in honor of Sabrina Duffy Stafford
Meet Sabrina
Sabrina lived the first 14 years of her life as a healthy young athlete who lived for biking, running, volleyball and basketball. One day in 1996, Sabrina, then an 8th grader, fainted after math class. She was soon diagnosed with a congenital heart defect known as Long QT syndrome that causes delayed electrical activity and fast, chaotic heartbeats. With affects ranging from fainting to cardiac arrest, Long QT put an end to Sabrina’s days of competitive sports. Then one night her senior year of high school, Sabrina suffered cardiac arrest. Her mother was able to call 9-1-1 and get help. Sabrina soon received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. It took a lot of trial and error to set the device at the low heart rate appropriate for an otherwise fit young woman. Sabrina is married to Caleb, is a mom to three beautiful children, and continues to thrive as a heart survivor.
Imagine a world without heart disease or stroke. Many say this is unattainable, considering heart disease kills more Americans than the next four leading causes of death combined. But this vision — for a world free of heart disease and stroke — drives the lifesaving mission of the American Heart Association. Open Your Heart gives donors the opportunity to make a direct impact on the AHA’s mission by making a personal gift.
Your generosity enables the American Heart Association to fund groundbreaking research, develop guidelines to improve patient care and help people lower their risk factors for heart disease and stroke. As long as heart disease continues to be the nation’s No. 1 cause of death, the importance of our work will only grow. Please consider making a gift to Open Your Heart.
Together, we can change lives and saves lives!
For additional information about supporting the American Heart Association and joining Cor Vitae, please contact Ann Jerome.
www.heart.org/corvitaesociety
