Raising awareness about women’s health – Elizabeth Bracken Thompson wins award

Girls Night Out host WCBS-TV anchor Mary Calvi and honoree Elizabeth Bracken Thompson with patients and providers.

Girls Night Out, a heartwarming evening honoring heart disease survivors and their caregivers, was held on February 15th at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel in Tarrytown. WCBS-TV News Anchor Mary Calvey will emcee the event, and proceeds will benefit Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), which provides comprehensive cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, and vascular surgery services and her new WMCHealth offering. The donation will be made to the Heart & Vascular Institute. A five-story critical care tower is currently under construction. A sold-out audience of over 400 people gathered.

Foundation Director Elizabeth Bracken Thompson has been awarded the WMCHealth Foundation’s inaugural Community Champion Award. Bracken-Thompson is a partner at the award-winning public relations firm Thompson & Bender in Briarcliff Her Manor and a longtime supporter of WMCHealth. The evening included food, dancing, and a videotaped fashion show featuring healthcare workers and patients modeling fashions from fashion designer Beverly Olivatti, the event’s exclusive fashion partner. Other sponsors included Macy’s. Cross County Shopping Center and his M&T Bank.

Heart disease remains the number one cause of death for women in the United States, killing one in three women, or about one woman every minute.

Gabby Fried, RN, vice president of cardiovascular services at WMCHealth’s Heart and Vascular Institute, said 80 percent of heart disease and stroke are preventable.

“Through education and screening, and by developing personalized plans to reduce risk factors and encourage exercise and a healthy diet, our cardiovascular health promotion and disease prevention program We’re working to prevent problems.” The program is paying off and we’re seeing more patients than last year,” she said.

This year’s fashion show featured New York City police officer Jake Amoroso, who had a successful surgery and was able to join the police force, and 15-year-old Mia Santana, who came with him from the Dominican Republic. A patient appeared. Her mother underwent life-changing heart repair surgery, and her younger siblings Gabriel, 8, and Ray, 4, were treated for congenital heart defects.