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2,100 set record at Watts in Tri-county heart walk
By Bob Jackson
YOUNGSTOWN
As the count- down closed in on the start of the American Heart Association’s annual Tri-County Heart Walk on Saturday morning, the strains of Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking On Sunshine” blared over the loudspeakers.
But Emmet Erb was having none of that.
When the countdown reached zero, the 4-year-old Poland boy took off at a full sprint down the track inside Youngstown State University’s Watson and Tressel Training Site, where the event took place. He didn’t slow down until he’d run a full lap, at which point he looked breathlessly at his mom and joyfully yelled, “I won the race!”
But Emmet has actually won more than a mere lap around a track. He won a battle against a congential heart defect that nearly cost him his life.
Emmet is the local Heart Association’s annual Heart Child, and was one of the centerpieces of this year’s Heart Walk. As a newborn, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that required him to have open-heart surgery at 3 months old.
“It was a complete shock,” said his mother, Joy, 35. “He was our first child and they didn’t discover the problem
during my pregnancy. Everybody expects a normal, healthy baby, so that really did come as a shock.”
Dr. Peter Vandekappelle of Akron Children’s Hospital said that at one point during the surgery, Emmet had to be resuscitated. But he survived the surgery, his heart is now healthy, and Emmet is a “lively 4-year-old with a ‘shark bite’ on his chest,” Dr. Vandekappelle said.
Joy said Emmet refers to the surgical scar on his chest as a “shark bite” and is aware of what he’s been through.
“If you ask him about it, he’ll tell you that the doctor fixed his heart and gave him his special mark,” she said.
When Joy and her husband, Jason, also 35, found out they were expecting a second child, they were naturally concerned about going through the same heart issues again. That time, she saw a high-risk pregnancy doctor, but their 2-year-old daughter, Elinor, has shown no signs of heart disease.
“Emmet is proof that heart disease knows no age limits,” Joy said.
Some 2,100 people packed into WATTS for the annual event, which more than doubled the Heart Association’s anticipated participation and made it the biggest ever in the 25-year history of the local chapter’s history, said Chris Pacileo, Heart Walk director.
“Our goal is to raise $250,000 and it looks like we’re well on our way,” he said.
Pacileo said the turnout and support for the event is proof that people in the Mahoning Valley are generous with their time and money when given a good cause to support.
“This is a great day for the Valley, and a great indicator of the kind of people who live here,” he said.
Besides raising money for cardiovascular research and educational programs, the goal of the event is to encourage physical activity as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. Participants were able to choose between walking laps inside the WATTS, or walking a 1.25-mile course outdoors around the YSU campus.
Among those who walked indoors were 44-year-old Harold Jacobs and his mother, Irma Riley, 68, both of Youngstown.
Jacobs said he suffered a stroke and heart attack in February 2013 that required emergency open-heart surgery to repair a badly damaged aortic valve.
“He was upstairs and I was downstairs, and I heard him fall when he collapsed,” said Riley, who worked 44 years as a health care associate at St. Elizabeth Medical Center. “I had to do CPR on him. Luckily, I knew what to do.”
“I had the surgery and here I am today,” said Jacobs, who was participating in his second heart walk. He said the exercise portion of the event is good for him, and for all heart patients.