COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT With IE Go Red For Women 2023

Join iHearRadio's Evelyn Erives as she chats with volunteer and survivor Danette Buoye about the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Celebration and the importance of listening to your body.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is iHeartRadio's Inland Empire Community Spotlight. Hello and welcome to the iHeartRadio Inland
Empire Community Spotlight. It's at thistime every week that we take time to
talk about various issues in our communityand also allow our local nonprofit organizations to
talk about themselves and all of theservices and great things that they provide right

(00:21):
here in the Inland Empire. I'myour host, Evelene Rivas. Of course,
my guest today is really the star. They are from the American Heart
Association. It is Danette Bewy.Hi there, Hi, Thank you for
having us and giving us this time. Absolutely, we're really excited to have
you, especially this time of year. I always seem to have lots of

(00:42):
great representatives from the American Heart Associationduring this time. And we're going to
get into why it's this time ofyear that we always talk to you.
But before we get into the detailsof what the American Heart Association is doing
all the good they're doing in ourcommunity, Danette, please tell me a
little bit about yourself and how yougot involved with the American Heart Association.

(01:02):
Well, I worked for local healthcareorganizations for about twenty two twenty three years
and I served on a lot ofdifferent communities committees and you know, different
foundations throughout my years there, andit happened to be on the American Heart
Association. I was a good citizenall of a sudden, I am not

(01:25):
just a good citizen, but I'mI'm a grateful recipient of the American Heart
Association's care. I was born withum and the order valve that like a
congenital a order valve, and Iwas missing some parts to my valve.

(01:46):
So we didn't know this until Iwas that twelve years old and I had
a hand select to me and atthat time they did, you know,
normal pre stress on me and said, oh, you know, your daughter
has a heart murmur and you shouldwatch it and that kind of thing.
So my mom, you know,of course, we've watched it. And
there was nothing really different or outof the ordinary until I was probably in
my late forties and started having justsome just some little funky fluttering in my

(02:12):
heart or shortness of breath or youknow, different things. And I continued
to sort of chalk it up toum age and await, lack of exercise
and all that kind of thing,and finally had a situation where I,
um, you know, saw adoctor and they quickly referred me to cardiology,

(02:34):
which is, you know, surprisedme so much because you never think
it's you. They got to cardiologyand they did some workups in different tests
on me, and then I wentback for a follow up and he says,
um, so this is what youhave and starts to draw me a
picture. And I was completely blownaway that I had anything to begin with.
Um, not to mention that Ihave something called aortic stenosis. And

(02:58):
there's three phases you can be in. You can be in mild, moderate,
or severe, and mine at thetime was kind of borderline mile to
moderate. And really he just said, you know, and just we'll just
keep track. Do you have anysymptoms, continue to, you know,
follow up with your doctor, andwe'll see you. If you should have
any symptoms. Very likely you'll neverhave a problem the rest of your your

(03:19):
life. So that was that.So that's whereward several years and I'm going
about my life and minding my businessand working full time and serving on some
wonderful community committees as I mentioned,and preparing for my daughter's wedding, and
I happened to move a chair withone of my nieces from one room to

(03:39):
the next. And it wasn't heavy, but just a little awkward you put
it down. When I stood up, I lost my vision and all I
saw was just like a white sheetin front of me. And oh,
my gosh, what does this mean? You know, as it's a stroke,
what is this? And I satdown and you know, waited a
little bit and started to kind ofcome back, and within you know,

(04:01):
a couple of hours, I hadmy sight back. UM. So keep
in mind if that happened to youraverage person, would they not like call
then one one go to the emergencym go to Oh my gosh, yeah,
but I but I didn't, youknow, Yeah, I have people
in my house that week in family. I had to go to work the

(04:23):
next morning. We had a bigevent going on in our hospital that started
the next day, and I justkind of figured I'll get to this at
some point this week. Oh no. So um. Which is a huge
mistake that most women make. Youknow, you think you're going to live
and last forever because everyone comes tofor you. Um, you know,

(04:43):
you want to do a good jobat your work. You um want to
you know, take care of yourfamily and be available and all those kinds
of things, and it's just socontradictory to what you're actually allowing to happen
to your body. Right. So, you know, a couple of days,
I'm at work and I mentioned toone of the positions and they said,
well, so I like, youneed to have a test, and
I did, and you know,within hours, my son lights up and

(05:09):
it's the cardiology department. So ofcourse we know what happened after that.
So I had many, many,many many tests to prepare for that and
just kind of continued working and thatkind of thing. I mean, really,
it wasn't that much different. Andhad it a preoptic my surgeon who

(05:30):
had never met before and who askedme if I knew why I was there,
and I said, well, ofcourse, I'm here to have my
valve replace and he said, well, let me explain something to you.
And he showed me some images onthe table and said, this is what
is going on. You have twovalves that are in failure and you have
an aortic aneurysm. Oh my god. So I have been walking around like

(05:51):
that for a very long time.According to the size of my aneurysm,
so again, I know, lookingback, I had symptoms. I had
shortness of breath, I had afullness in my chest. From time to
time, I um would fatigue ifI walked too much. And you know,
by this time, in like fifties, and I've way decided, oh,

(06:14):
I'm out of shape or you know, normal aging, or I need
to go to the gym, orI need to lose weight, or all
the things we do and all ofmine I'm carrying all these things, you
know with me. So UM,I had my surgery, and UM,
I have lots of new parts inmy chest. And I was very much,

(06:36):
by the grace of God, Idid really, really well. And
I came home in four days andI lost four days. That seems so
quickly, That seems quickly. Initially, you know, they said, oh,
you're going to have you know,be in recovery. You'll be it
CC, you'll you you'll be ina step down unit. You'll be here,
you'll be there before you'll go home, and about you know, maybe

(06:58):
about ten days. And I justyou know, I was just so remarkably
lucky that number one. I hada wonderful surgeon and everybody knew what they
were doing. And it was welltaken care of. And you know I
went back to work ten weeks later. Wow. And I'm going to be
celebrating that surgery on November seven thisyear for seven years of my surgeon.

(07:25):
Since my surgery, Wow, congratulations. As I was telling you before,
you know, every time I talkedabout it, it gets easier. I
think, well, it's been sevenyears. Yeah, easier to talk about
it. That it isn't you know, it's it's emotional. And if you
think about how I walked around forso long, and you know, what

(07:45):
could have happened to me and somany things. I just had a second
granddaughter and got to be there andholder once she was just hours old.
And you know, if you don'tthink that doesn't affect you to think that,
wow, I could almost not bein here right exactly. You know,
you think about things like that andyou track back and you think,

(08:07):
wow, I'm very lucky to behere at number one and on touch that
I owe it to myself and myfamily who were so scared and worried for
me to take much better care ofmyself. And so for that reason,
I'm very much involved with American Heartassociationists to kind of tell me to my
pipthetic story on how I didn't takecare of myself and hope that people will

(08:31):
listen to my story. And mostdefinitely, you know, if it sounds
familiar, you know, don't waitfor something to happen to you. Absolutely,
Oh my goodness. Well, weare sitting here with the net.
She is with the American Heart Associationtelling us her story of I mean,
basically, it's a survival story fromwhat happened to you and you know,

(08:56):
and sharing it absolutely is going tochange lives. I always whenever I talk
to someone who's been through something,so really it is traumatizing to think about
all of the things that you hadto go through. It makes you think
about yourself, it really does.It makes you look in the mirror and
say, am I feeling this way? What's going on in my own life?

(09:18):
And maybe I shouldn't be putting everybodybefore I put my own health.
When I know I'm not feeling right, something just feels off. So I'm
thank you very much for sharing allof that, And I'm so glad that
you're here, and I'm so gladthat you got to see your granddaughter and
that you get to share your storythrough American Heart Association. So are you

(09:41):
a part of their Go Red celebration. I am. I'm the executive leadership
team for the Inland Empire. Ihave been for about seven eight years.
Oh wonderful. So this year's InlandEmpire Go Red Celebration the theme is Beat
the Beat. Can you tell mea little bit about that? Well,
the American Heart Association, their goalis to focus on obviously improving cardiac arrest

(10:07):
survival rates through life saving skills,education and training. And their theme this
year it's it's very cute. It'scalled Be the Beat, and so there's
all kinds of fun things they're doingwith Be the Beat. That d the
Beat is American Heart Association's challenge tolearn CPR. And more than three hundred

(10:28):
and fifty thousand sudden cardiac arrests occuroutside of the hospital every year. And
I mean, you hear about Americasitting next to in a basketball game or
somebody in the parking lot of thegrocery store, and the vast majority of
them even occur at homes. Nineteenpercent are an adult, and you know,

(10:48):
sadly thirteen percent are in children andthey can happen in public. So
bystander CPR can double a triple aperson's chances as survival if they start to
meet imediately on So important to learnCPR and important to not be afraid to
use it. Um. Sadly womenare less likely to get such help.

(11:11):
And when you think about it,it's like, here's of women who just
dropped out and you're supposed to,you know, pound her chests and perform
CPR on or all this, andI think people are afraid they're going to
hurt her no matter. You know, she could be your your daughter,
your wife, your mother, yourgrandmother, but she's a woman, and
I think, well, can Ido that to this person? Um.
There was a study that was donein I think it was twenty and eighteen,

(11:33):
weren't so that forty forty five percentof men received bystanders CPR compared to
only thirty nine percent of women,and men had therefore a higher odds of
surviving than women do. And inthe heart attack is the number one killer
in women. Wow, oh mygosh, that's really scary to think about.

(11:58):
And you're right, So CPR doesseem intimidating because when you when you
think of it, or you seeit in the movies. It does look
like so much is going on,But is it? Is it fairly easy
to learn? Well, it reallyis easy to learn. And like you
say, it is intimidating. Imean here, I think the first thing
you think of it I don't wantto hurt that person or I don't want

(12:20):
to make what's happening to them,you know, any worse. So of
course the first thing you can dois if you can is called any one
one if you see if somebody collapse, um, and then and then you
know, to to grow to theiraid and just try to start performing a
CPR, which is really as simpleas just pushing hard and fast in the

(12:41):
center of their chest. And theysay you need can count to one hundred,
one hundred and twenty hundred and twentybeats approximately is what you try to
do, permit it. So that'sa that's a lot of um, you
know, pressing which you can ina minute. And again I was telling
you about this theme of being thebeat. So you know, in teaching
this CPR this year, with thewith the theme being what it is,

(13:05):
they're saying, you know, they'rekind of gauging that minute the hundred beats
to songs like Staying Alive or Crazyand love, you know, walk the
line, but at Johnny Cash andjust to try to train some people to
like this is what this is,what that means, This is what that
many speats in one minute means.And you know, when seconds matter the

(13:28):
most, CPR can be the differenceand whether you can help somebody survive or
not. The American Heart Association isamazing. I belonged to another organization and
they came out and they did ademonstration on CPR and they've brought I don't
know, four or five little minilike chests, kind of mannequins and just
very casually, you know, showpeople how to perform CPR. And it

(13:52):
was amazing how easy it was.And I think in that group of home
there was probably sixty seventy five women. Dad in an hour's time learn how
to do this, and I meanan hour's meeting, So just within minutes
you can learn how to do it, and you know and have the confidence
to perform it should you need to. Wow, Yeah, I think it's

(14:13):
it's vital. It's so important.Can you can you share some of the
warning signs of heart disease in women. Well, you know, for a
heart they're different between heart attack andum and stroke. Right, that's also
something maybe you could explain a littlebit more onto well, right, I
mean, heart disease is still thenumber one killer of women and people.

(14:35):
When you say that, people areso surprised because I think for some reason,
we always all think, oh,it's you know, breast cancer,
and as horrible as that is,my mother in law passed away from that,
it's shocking that it's not. It'sit's heart disease is the number one
killer, right, One and everythree women are affected by heart disease.
And my family, I have onesibling, a sister, and she had

(14:58):
a strokes three years ago to nowhere. You know, you kind of think
like, what, how did thathappen? So, so both of us
have had something happen for a heartattack systems in women, they can include
uncomfortable pressure, a squeezing, sensationof fullness, or a pain in the
center of your chest. I describedeven though I didn't have a heart attack

(15:22):
when I was having my own episode, I described it as feeling full.
So I feel like I just hada Thanksgiving dinner or something and my chest
felt really full. And it canlast a few minutes and then you go,
oh, I'm glad that's over,and it goes away, you know,
or it can go away and comeback. And I mean, if
it goes away and comes back,that's not normal, right, have pain

(15:46):
or discomfort in one or both ofyour arms, your back, your neck,
your jaw, even your stomach.And again it's easy to say,
oh, you know, I'm olderand those things, those things hurt me
because I'm you know, fifty yearsold. They are sixty years old or
whatever. Again, if they continue, it's not normal other sense, they're

(16:07):
breaking out in a cold, sweat, nausea, lightheadedness. And as with
men, women's most common heart attacksens in this chest pain or discomfort,
and we know you know when thathappens. I think most people know,
wait, that's not normal. Butwomen are somewhat more likely than men to
experience some of the other common sensence, particularly the shortness of breadth and the

(16:29):
nausea, even vomiting, and backor jaw pain. For strokes, the
stroke sentences, they're different, differentin a way. That's sudden numbness or
weakness in your face, your arms, your leg, especially on one side
of the body, confusion, troublesspeaking or understanding what's being said to you,

(16:52):
troubles seeing or blurred vision and oneor both eyes, sudden trouble walking,
dizzy, loss of balanced or coordination, even a severe headache for no
reason. So again, did youexperience any of those things, You should
never wait more than five minutes todial nine one one. And if you

(17:15):
experienced even one of the if youexperience of even one of the signs of
above, having a stroke, andthe time that it takes for you to
get attention for it makes all thedifference in the world. And my sister
was kissing her husband goodbye, andas she was talking to him, all
of a sudden sudden started to slurher speech, and he turned he was

(17:38):
looking at her, and then shejust kind of slumped, and he kind
of lifted her and stood her ona stool, and she kept trying to
say what's happening and made no sense, and so he quickly called nine one
one, and she was in anambulance and less than ten minutes and was
in the hospital soon after. Andagain that was, you know, so

(18:00):
many years ago, and it's doingfantastic today. Wow, Wow, that's
remarkable. Oh and it's it's it'sso scary to think how easy and quick
that could happen. And yeah,and even though there are these signs that
we just tend to ignore, andso much more so because we are women.
Yeah, it was so good atthat. We're really good at that.

(18:22):
It really is true. Well,okay, so let's talk about some
of this really good stuff that's goingto be happening at the go Red for
Women celebration. Tell me about this. When is it, what's happening?
What can people expect? Well,this year's event is a little bit different
and we're really excited to try somethingdifferent. So in the past it's always
been a daytime event. It's beena lunch event, which pretty much brings

(18:48):
lunch crew workers, a lot ofpeople from you know, different offices and
businesses and that kind of thing.So maybe you'll go with your coworkers when
it's a lunch of them. Yeah. I actually was there last year and
I was it the m okay forit during the lunch event. Okay,
Well, you're going to see awhole different space this year because it's going
to be a dinner nice So notonly do we hope you still bring your
co workers that we hope you bringa friend, a spouse, to partners,

(19:12):
somebody to just to kind of makeit a more fun type of evening.
In the past, it's always beenat the Convention Center Distort. They're
going to be at the Riverside MunicipalAuditory, which is iconic, beautiful old.
It's on Tuesday, Mayson ninth,and the registration for it starts at

(19:34):
five thirty and they have a greatsilent option and a great healthcare expo from
five thirty to seven and then thedinner and the program starts at seven really
really wonderful program, delightful meal andit's anticipated it should ended about eight thirty

(19:56):
PM and you know, the auctionwill check out and UM all of that.
The silent option, of course,it's always done if you if you
know silent option, they're always friendto bidden outdid your friend and you know,
go for that whatever it is thatyou have to have. But also
what I love is they also doUM something they call the Red Expo and

(20:18):
they have a lot of health screeningsgoing on. They can teach thee they'll
be teaching CPR right then and there. Then there's a lot of wellness activities
too. So I've known many peoplewho have gone through that and said,
oh my gosh, I had youknow, a health screening, gen I
had no idea that, you know, my blood pressure was high. And
you know, it's like you again, you know, you walk around thinking

(20:41):
everything I'm feeling right now is normal, and you go to a nice event
and you sit down, Oh,sure, I'll go through the health screening
and how my books should taken,and it's you know, it's not normal
in a normal range. So um, it's you know, it's still a
fun advance to just walk through andsee all the difference, um, the
boots and those people that are there. There's always during the event, there's

(21:03):
a wonderful survivor story which is alwaysgreat to see in here, and just
you know, a big celebration.Honestly, it's a big celebration on just
how the American Heart Association helps thecommunity and the inland empire. This year
it's being chaired by Marissa krus Kutowski. She is amazing, phenomenal woman.

(21:27):
I love her. She's the directorof communications with Sardana's Markets. Oh wonderful.
Oh yes, I love that.I love that. Okay, so
this is so great. I lovethat it's a night event. This year
sounds like it's going to be likeeven more of a party. I love
that silent auctions too. You're speakingright to me when you say a silent

(21:48):
auction is happening. And I dolove that there is the built in health
screening that you can just go.Do you know what you mean, because
so many of us go, Idon't have time. I don't know if
there's kind of a love hate aboutit. I agree, don't get me
near a scale, right, Okay, do we have to do scale?
No, but let's just do theblood pressure part. Let me find out

(22:11):
about that. I actually had abit of a scare last year, and
I don't want to say overly likea scare, but I started feeling some
sort of way and I remember havingto go and I said, you know,
I need to go to the doctor. And really, I'll be honest,
it is because of the American HeartAssociation. It's because I've talked to
so many of your volunteers and I'veworked with them through the years. And

(22:32):
when I started feeling just not right, I had a feeling it was my
blood pressure, and it sure enoughwas and I took myself to the doctors
and everything, and my doctor said, Okay, we're going to try some
stuff to see if we can getthat down. And and it did.
It worked, and I feel tonsbetter. But it is just a matter
of doing it. You have toadvocate for yourself and you have to really

(22:55):
remember to do it, because Ithink that if I had put it off,
I would be a lot worse offtoday than I was, you know,
say, four months ago. ButI really do credit the American Heart
Association for getting in my head.And I'm glad, Yeah, I'm glad
I heard. I've heard so manywonderful stories yours now included that are inspiring

(23:18):
and really make you look again inthe mirror and say, am I okay,
am I having any feelings like this? What can I do to make
these lifestyle changes to get myself healthier? And if I think I can't handle
it on my own, maybe Ishould go to the doctor and just get
it all checked out. I mean, that's the bottom line, the bottom

(23:41):
line and the whole takeaway. Itwas just just listen to what's going on
to you and just go do somethingabout it. Go see your doctor,
know what your blood pressure is knowwhat your cholesterol level is. I mean,
you know it sounds I used tothink, oh, I don't need
to know any about it. I'm, you know, thirty forty years old,
and but you do need to knowit. I mean, it's it's

(24:03):
it just it will help you behere when your grandchildren are born, trust
me. And there's just there's nothinglike them. And I look back on
too many things and think I shouldhave taken better care of myself. And
then I stopped and say, Okay, I am taking better care of myself.
I'm very proud of that. Rightyou can't you have to remember yeah
exactly, there's no it's not likeyou start you're starting too late. You

(24:25):
can start now, start right now. It doesn't mean yeah, you don't
have to let another day go byand then think, you know, get
down on yourself. I mean,wow, why do we as women always
do that? I should have startedstopped to silent options, Yes exactly,
I like that. That's better therapy. So the go Red for Women's Celebration

(24:48):
again is happening Tuesday, May ninth, which sounds like it's going to be
a wonderful, wonderful event. Wherecan somebody go oh before I go to
that, where can somebody go ifthey want to actually sponsor this event?
Because I I understand these events takea lot. It's you know, it's
a big to do. If acompany, a local organization themselves wanted to

(25:11):
get involved, could they still Ohmy goodness, absolutely, I mean to
the to the very last minute.Um, you know, to participate,
you can. What I would recommendthe fact is to just go online and
it's I e go red dot heartdot org. So I e for Inland
Empires go red got Heart dot org. And you know, special thanks to

(25:33):
CBS because they are a national sponsorfor Go Red for Women. And I
also love it. You know,we're calling it the Go Red for Women's
Celebration because there's just so much tocelebrate and you know, so much gratitude
to the American heartiestists. You know, I feel it all the time.
I never say no to anything theyask me to do because largely because of

(25:56):
the research they've done and the proceduresthat I needed to have done. It
was because of the American Heart Association. So I'm yeah, it's it's important
to me. Absolutely. Oh that'swonderful, Okay, I ego Red dot
heart dot org is where you couldgo for all the information. If you
want to sponsor the event, ifyou want to make a donation to the

(26:18):
cause, you absolutely can. Andif you want to get more information,
as somebody who wanted to attend,I imagine they can also go to that
same website. Of course they surecube And do you have to wait?
I mean, can you buy ticketsahead? Can you get them at the
door? Would you rather them obviouslybuy them ahead? I think they'd rather
you buy them ahead of time,obviously because it's a dinner and you know

(26:40):
they're they're doing dinner, count accountfor dinner and that kind of thing,
so um, you know, butcertainly they can be added up till you
know, a week or so aheadof time, okay. Us any kind
of sponsorship level is so appreciated.I mean, we had different companies that
will do even a mini sponsorship becausesomebody in their office or their department had

(27:03):
how to know where I had aheart attack, and so the crew came
together and just said, this willthis means something to us since they do
this sponsorship so small or big,it all counts and it's all going in
the right place. That's wonderful.I ego red dot Heart dot org is
the site. It is happening Maynight. That's a Tuesday night. Why

(27:25):
we all need an excuse to goout on a Tuesday night? Come on
have Oh and of course we didn'teven talk about it. It's called go
red. You gotta wear red.That's even more fun, go shopping for
something that's red. And the fellastoo, right, the fellas can wear
red as well. Oh yeah,I love that. Well, thank you

(27:48):
so much, Danette. I reallyenjoyed talking to you. Of course.
This is the Inland Empire community Spotlight. Danette Guey. You are from the
American Heart Association, obviously a amazingvolunteer, and they are very lucky to
have you, and we the worldare very lucky to have you as well.
I'm so happy that you were ableto get the help that you needed

(28:11):
in the time that you need andsee that beautiful grandchild of yours. And
you know, keep sharing your messagelike this because it really is inspiring,
even if it's not on you know, a community spotlight like this. I'm
sure you know you probably walk aroundand just tell people things. Now,
all about it. I'm a walkingbillboard. I love that just where I

(28:33):
am survivor shirt exactly. Oh,it's so wonderful. Well, it's been
very very great to chat with youhere. Of course, a little bit
more the go Red for Women celebration. It is happening just really a few
days. It's happening very very soon. So go and check out all of
the things that you need at iego, red dot Heart dot org,

(28:56):
get your tickets, make a donationif you can't make it out there.
We all want to celebrate all ofthose wonderful, wonderful people who are taking
their health back and being the beatthat's your right. Thank you also for
having me and letting me talk.I appreciate it absolutely. Thank you again.
Of course, this has been theInland Empire Community Spotlight. Thank you

(29:19):
so much for joining me again today. I do hope that you'll join us
every single week as we shine aspotlight on important issues and local organizations that
are dedicated to making the world abetter and more well informed place. Until
next time, thank you so muchfor listening and natte with iHeartRadio's Inland Empire

(29:41):
Community Spotlight.