Hope
It begins with you.
Our Chapter Objectives
We are heart patient and caregiver volunteers, adults young and old, providing support and hope to patients and their caregivers from the diagnosis of heart disease through treatment and beyond.
Mended Hearts
The Bellingham Chapter of Mended Hearts normally meets monthly to offer support and information to all heart patients in our community. Our speakers are cardiologists, heart surgeons, nutritionists, and other health care professionals who offer insights into improving our heart health.
For more information please go to our Contact Page to send a message or contact our message line at 360-788-6928.
From Our
Chapter President,
Dianna Konrad
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Young Mended Hearts Celebrates Ten Years
In April Young Mended Hearts celebrated its ten-year anniversary. We did so in the company of the friends we have become by enjoying a lovely dinner together. We received congratulatory messages from people who have watched us grow through the years. The message below is from Dr. Elisa Zaragoza who started it all by asking what we could do for her heart patients. She is a cardiologist who specializes in treating young patients with congenital heart defects. Most of the patients were young adults who didn’t fit in as comfortably with the 65 and older heart patients at our chapter meetings. What began ten years ago has grown into a national support group. Thank you Dr. Zaragoza for working with us to make this all happen. Here is Dr. Zaragoza’s message:
Happy 10th Anniversary! It’s hard to believe 10 years have gone by.
I’m truly grateful that this group started all those years ago, it came to fill a void in patient support for people like you and caretakers.
A big thanks to Dianna and Marilynn (who we all miss and remember with love.). Also thanks to the founding members and those who followed and poured their hearts into keeping the group going. You all built something remarkable.
Young Mended Hearts continues to be a support system for young people facing heart challenges. What you’ve created continues to make a real difference.
There’s something special about coming together that lightens the load and lifts off the fear and uncertainty of having heart disease at a young age. Please keep this mission alive—you’re truly changing lives with the hope, and support you provide.
With love
Elisa
Young Mended Hearts
Since April, 2015, we've been inviting all young heart patients (18 to 55) and their families to join other young heart patients and their families for an informal monthly get-together to discuss the common issues, challenges and successes of being a young heart patient.
Please join us. Follow us on Facebook!
Young Mended Hearts of NorthWest Washington
For more information about Young Mended Hearts, please contact Peter Kilcline at kilcline.p@gmail.com
or Dianna Konrad at dmk9@sbcglobal.net
Are You Having Open Heart
Surgery Soon?
Before You Do, Would You Like to Talk with
Someone Who Has?
You can get information and questions answered about what it’s like to go through open heart surgery by watching this video featuring two Mended Heart volunteers who share their experiences as open heart surgery patients. You can also speak with either of these volunteers by contacting them through our “Contact” page.
Our sincere thanks to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center for their encouragement and production of this video.
Awards
Together, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center and Mended Hearts Bellingham are making a difference in our community by supporting heart patients and their caregiver families. These efforts have been acknowledged by the international headquarters of The Mended Hearts, Inc., Albany, GA, with the following awards:
Marilynn Huffman
2023 Western Region Volunteer of the Year
Dianna Konrad
2020 Western Region Volunteer of the Year
PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Medical Center
2018 National Hospital of the Year
PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Medical Center
2017 Regional Hospital of the Year
PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Medical Center
2016 Regional Hospital of the Year
Mended Hearts, Bellingham
2015 President’s Cup Award
For outstanding service in our community
PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Medical Center
2014 Regional Hospital of the Year
The Western Region of Mended Hearts chapters includes the states of California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii
Bequests and Gifts
We sincerely appreciate the thoughtfulness and generosity behind the bequests and gifts given to our chapter. This helps us remember and honor those special people while continuing our promise to support all heart patients and their families in our community.
The Ingram Family, Shirley McCraw, The Bishop Family and The Dircks Family, all close friends of Charlie Heinemann and his family, have made a generous gift to our Mended Hearts chapter in memory of John Heinemann.
Scott Swanson presented a generous gift to our Mended Hearts chapter as a bequest from the estate of his parents, Philip and Joyce Swanson.
The estate of Stephen James Brewster made a significant donation to the PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation in honor of Mended Hearts, Bellingham. A cath lab patient room in St. Joseph’s Cardiovascular Center will be named:
Stephen James Brewster
In Honor of Mended Hearts