Hello!! My name is Robin Phillips, I’m a registered nurse with The Hartford here in Syracuse and each year my company participates in the Syracuse Start! Heart Walk with hundreds of other companies in Central New York.
While I have attended and been a fundraising participant for several years, this year the event will mean something different to me, as this year I will be wearing a Red Cap - I am a stroke survivor.
It’s been almost seven months since I was at Carousel Mall shopping with a friend when I began to feel weird. I couldn’t quite describe the feeling I had, but it was as if I couldn’t think clearly, like everything was fuzzy.
All of a sudden my friend noticed that the right side of my face was drooping while I was trying to speak, she brought me over to a bench where we noticed that the entire right side of my body was drooping. Soon after I sat down I wasn’t able to move my right arm or leg, I was having a stroke.
It turns out that my stroke was caused by a patent foramen oval or a hole in my heart, which allowed a clot to pass through going directly to the carotid artery which supplies the brain with blood.
Later that week I went into surgery to have it removed and I can’t begin to say enough about the great care I received during that time at Crouse Hospital.
Today, I’m very fortunate to not experience any residual side effects of the stroke. I am also fortunate because the knowledge and education that paramedics, physicians and surgeons had to treat me came from research that had been funded by the American Heart and American Stroke Association.
I encourage you and your employees to commit to forming a team for the 2010 Syracuse Start! Heart Walk today! Small team or large team, we can be mighty! Join me as I raise funds to support critical research and education for heart disease and stroke, and help me to make sure there are no Empty Walker Envelopes this year!
Thank you for supporting the American Heart Association, I’ll see you at the Walk! I’ll be one of the ones wearing a Red Cap.
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The American Heart Association is the largest voluntary health organization working to prevent, treat and defeat heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. These diseases, the Nation's No.1 and No.3 killers, claim more than 865,000 American lives a year. Thanks to all our walkers, donors and volunteers who have accepted the challenge to help fight heart disease and stroke. We cannot achieve our mission without each one of you!
For more information please contact one of your Start! Heart Walk staff partners at (315) 234-4745 or via email at joyl.clance@heart.org
Donations can be mailed to: AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION Attn: Syracuse Heart Walk P O Box 3049 Syracuse, NY 13220
