White Plains Hospital Speaks From the Heart
By Sam Barron
White Plains Hospital has a big heart.
On Friday, the hospital took part in Heart Disease Awareness Month with a number of activities educating people about heart disease and good nutrition. Red hair extensions were also done by Salon Diva in White Plains for a $10 donation and nurses gave out Hershey’s kisses for people who donated to the Go Red for Women Campaign.
“This has been growing every year,” Hospital CEO Jon Schandler said. “We want to get people focused on having a healthy diet and low cholesterol.”
White Plains Hospital has been having this event for the last five years, hoping to educate more people about what they can do to take care of their heart.
“It’s really about getting people informed,” Schandler said. “Heart disease is the number one killer, bigger than all the other diseases combined.”
Margaret Walotsky, a nurse manager at White Plains Hospital, said it is important for women to be aware of heart disease, noting that heart disease kills more women than breast cancer.
“We want to educate and empower women,” Walotsky said. “Women need to advocate for themselves so they get aggressive treatment.”
Walotsky said it often hard to get women in clinical trials, and to get them diagnosed and treated as quickly as men. She said it is important to make women aware so that when they have warning symptoms, they know to go see a cardiologist rather than just a regular physician.
The event also featured a heart health fair with screenings, information and heart healthy tips; and information about the hospital’s state of the art cardiac catheterization laboratory to help save heart attack patients.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
