CLEVELAND — More than 600 people dressed in their best red to attend the annual Go Red for Women luncheon Tuesday in Cleveland.
The event, put on by the American Heart Association, raises money for heart research and took place at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. I was honored to serve as this year's emcee.
What came as a surprise as a surprise for many was the CPR class, where all of the attendees were taught how to perform it. In addition, stories from survivors brought a great deal of emotion.
Chris and Kelly Rizer were high school friends who waited years to become sweethearts, and they decided to make it official last year. But while Kelly's heart was full of love for Chris, it almost didn't let her walk down the aisle.
"[My] biological father passed away from a heart attack, and his cholesterol was through the roof," Kelly recalled. "So my mom had me tested, and mine was not much better."
Kelly, one of thousands of Americans who suffer from a genetic predisposition for high cholesterol, started Statins at age 18. The medication managed her condition, but health wasn't always a priority.
"I knew in the back of my mind that, at some point it, could be an issue," she said, "but you know, when you're young, you don't think anything's going to happen to you."
Years later, Kelly reconnected with Chris, but started noticing trouble.
"I wasn't on my meds," she admitted. "I didn't have a doctor, I didn't have insurance yet, and I just, you know, it wasn't one of those things that I made a priority like I should have, and I was noticing shortness of breath."
Finally, she saw a doctor, who ordered an echo stress test.
"My blood pressure shot up to over 200, and I did not last very long," she said. "I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest. I was breathing so hard.
"They scheduled me for the heart cath in the beginning of August, and that's when they discovered I needed to have open heart surgery."
"By the time we saw Kelly she had significant coronary artery disease," Dr. Marc Pelletier from University Hospitals added. "So she had built up a fair amount of calcium and plaque in her arteries that supply her heart muscle, and on top of that, she had an aortic valve, so a valve that had calcified over time."
There was just one problem: Kelly's surgery was scheduled for Sept. 6, and the wedding on Oct. 16. She had no plans of missing it, or her 43rd birthday a few days later.
"I was determined I would've gotten married in the hospital if I had to and pushed the party back there," she said, laughing. "I had the date for three years. I wasn't changing it."
Chris didn't question her, and didn't care about the scar under her wedding dress. He was just grateful she met him at the end of the aisle.
"I know she had the strength to do it, because she's always a fighter," Chris told us.
"The fact that she was able to have surgery and then go on to get married, I think, three weeks later, is pretty amazing," Pelletier said.
The couple hopes their story encourages other to take earlier action.
"If you're not feeling right, go get checked out," Chris declared, "because I have the same issues in my family."
"Oh, he's going to be getting checked as soon as he can," Kelly added. "We're only going through this once."