It was the day before Thanksgiving when the Hedricks got “The Call.” The Washington Regional Transplant Community (WRTC) had recovered a heart that would save 15-year-old Jennifer Hedrick’s life. “It was an absolute perfect match,” her father Steve remembers. Jennifer was only 8 years old when she was first diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition…

Ask Chris and Elizabeth Vance how they met and they will tell you a vivid story about a chance encounter at a party at Virginia Tech in 1973. Chris remembers Elizabeth wearing a purple scarf in her hair. Elizabeth remembers the tuna fish sandwich and the copy of Stranger in a Strange Land that Chris gave…

Last year, an important connection was made that will have ripples throughout U.S. Muslim community—and the scientific community—for generations. The Washington Regional Transplant Community (WRTC) had been struggling to find a way to help D.C.’s growing Muslim population accept and embrace the idea of organ donation. Doctors throughout the region were starting to hear “It’s…

Death is inevitable – the mental suffering surrounding it is not. Dr. Naresh Pathak has been bringing that message to doctors in Florida since 1989 and last month, he brought it to Virginia as well at the “Life, Death, and Donation” summit. Speaking to other faith leaders in Virginia Beach, Pathak shared his thoughts on…

When Jeffrey Arnowitz was “a newly minted rabbi,” as he calls it, he had a congregant who was waiting for a heart. Rabbi Arnowitz visited this congregant, Michael, as he was in and out of hospitals, having heart attacks so frequently that he began to refer to them nonchalantly as “episodes.” When a heart finally…