World Heart Day: A Day To Remember, Reflect, and A Call to Action for Heart Health

World Heart Day: A Day To Remember, Reflect, and A Call to Action for Heart Health

Today is World Hear Day. It is a day recognized around the world as a day when the global community focuses on heart health and what we can all do to address the world’s #1 killer, cardiovascular disease. This year, the World Heart Federation is focused on motivating every country to develop or support national cardiovascular health action plans. This is important, because it could help one person or family save a life.

This day is deeply personal to me for one reason: July 3, 2021. That date is one that I will never forget, because it is the day my father passed away suddenly from cardiac arrest.

As I look back on that day, every moment is vivid in my mind – life changing days like that usually are. It started as a beautiful sunny day in Doylestown. My wife, Tara and our two boys spent that morning in downtown at our local farmer’s market. We visited local shops, including our local Toy Store, Busy Bee Toys.

We arrived home around 11 a.m. William wanted to start building a Lego he had purchased at the toy store while we were packing to go to the Jersey shore for July 4th and the long weekend. As I was helping William with a part of the Lego he was struggling with, my sister called my phone. I didn’t answer, and I planned to call her back. She called again immediately. That is when I knew something was very wrong.

I picked up the phone, and all I could hear was crying and screaming on the other end of the line. My sister struggled to find the words to tell me that our dad had fallen asleep, and when our mother tried to wake him a short while later, he was unresponsive. My sister immediately called EMS who in those moments was giving him CPR. They had been working on him for 10 minutes.

My sister hung up the phone to get more information from EMS and police. My mind was racing, and I quickly moved from shock, to anger, to helplessness. When my sister called back, she handed the phone to a member of the local EMS. His words are burned into my mind to this day: “I’m sorry, but we have done everything we can do…your father has passed away.”

The rest of that day and period is hard to put into words. From telling my seven- and four-year-old sons that Pop had gone to heaven, to seeing my mom when we finally got to Point Pleasant later that day, to the funeral and everything after.

The hardest part – even today -- is the suddenness of it all, and not having the opportunity to say everything I wanted to say to my dad before he left this world. While a peaceful passing is what you want for a loved one, it is awful for those left behind.

That is why today means a lot to me, and why I chose to work at Amarin – a Company focused on tackling cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular risk. If my work can help one son, or daughter, husband or wife not have to live through their own July 3, 2021, then I have done something meaningful. That’s what I strive for every day at Amarin, and that is why I hope you will join me and helping to raise awareness of World Heart Day globally.

You don’t have to work at Amarin, or any other company or organization focused on efforts to address cardiovascular disease. Everyone can play a part by lending their voice to raise awareness of this issue and help the millions of cardiovascular disease patients around the world be heard. To get involved, you can support the World Heart Federation and sign their petition, or visit Amarin’s LinkedIn page where you can like, comment or share content from our #PaintMeAHeart campaign to help us raise awareness of this global challenge.

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Dennis Miller

Technical & Content SEOer with 14+ yrs experience with high traffic & revenue clients

1 个月

Your dad was a great man. His legacy as an amazing father and partner lives on through you.

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Karen Winterhalter

Taking a step back from day-to-day management of Onyx Health but still very involved in Strategic Healthcare Marketing Communications

2 个月

Such an important message and from the heart x

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Alex Kelly

C-Suite Biopharmaceutical Executive | Finance | Corporate Affairs | Investor Relations | Communications Operations | M&A

2 个月

Mark - thanks for sharing your post about your very personal connection to World Heart Day. I’m sorry that you & your sister lost your Dad, your Mom lost her husband and the boys lost their Pop to heart disease. You’ve invested your time and professional life working with and for companies focused on cardiovascular medicines - well before it hit this close to home. Thanks for your commitment to helping others avoid their own July 3, 2021.

Jim Moorhead

Creating BRAVECULTURE? | Keynote Speaker | Author

2 个月

What a wrenching story - I admire you and your job choice and aspiration to help others - thanks so much

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Sandra Tremulis, MBA

Marketing Consultant @ Tremulis Stractical Marketing Consulting | MBA, Inherited CardioMetabolic Health, Women's Health

2 个月

Change can start with one person ... https://lnkd.in/eBqimEws

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