American Heart Association survivors met heart disease/stroke researchers at the “Heart to Heart” Meet and Greet on Thursday, October 27.

After a brief introduction from Esmeralda “Mela” Perez, senior community health director of the American Heart Association, we heard a personal story from a heart survivor who explained how her condition has affected her health and her daily life.

After this, we heard from four graduate students who are also American Heart Association fellows spoke about their research and the reason they are interested in researching heart disease/stroke.

This followed a brief tour of the South Texas Research Facility.

Quotes

“I enjoyed meeting the survivors and especially hearing Miss Yolanda’s story about her battle with heart disease. Since we spend so much time in lab working on a small piece of the puzzle, we can lose sight of the bigger picture, and that is helping patients and saving lives. Events like these inspire us as researchers and give us the drive to work harder, especially when experiments fail. Our work matters and hearing that from someone who can benefit from it is very encouraging!” Nancy Nguyen, Dr. Reto Asmis’ Lab

Special thanks to

– Nancy Nguyen, Dr. Reto Asmis’ Lab

– Kevin Downs, Dr. Reto Asmis’ Lab

– Liz Fisher, Dr. Jim Lechleiter’s Lab

– Mikaela Sifuentes, Dr. Jim Lechleiter’s Lab

– Rafael Veraza, Dr. Mark Shapiro’s Lab

– Crystal Archer, Dr. Mark Shapiro’s Lab

– Dr. Reto Asmis

– Dr. Jim Lechleiter

– Dr. Mark Shapiro

An extra special thanks to the American Heart Association San Antonio, Dr. David Weiss, Janice Smith, and the Dean’s Office for facilitating the event.