Low-Cost Heart Screenings in Dana Point This Saturday Have a Personal Story Behind Them

BY LAUREN ADIOVA

Last July, Holly Morrell, a Laguna Beach resident, lay unconscious on a hospital operating table for a scheduled procedure, the 6th surgery related to the life-saving machine that had wires hooked into her heart.

For 10 years, Morrell had lived with an implanted defibrillator, which monitors heart activity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It provides a shock to the heart to save lives when the heart falls into an arrhythmia. The wires that had been hooked to her heart were to be removed because of two wires that were fractured, and one recalled by the manufacturer.

“I basically had three wires that weren’t good in my body," Morrell says. "I was at risk of many things, including cardiac arrest, so I had to schedule a time to get those wires removed so they could put new wires in. That happens to be something that a patient like me dreads the most, because it’s the most dangerous part of living with this technology and intervention."

During the operation, Morrell's cardiologist, Dr. Raymond Schaerf, began to remove one of the wires when a vein ruptured. Her blood pressure plunged, and she was bleeding out. Schaerf had to cut her open to save her life. After she recovered, she was told she was 90 seconds from death.

Morrell comes from a family with a genetic history of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She has lost six family members to cardiac arrest, one of them being her father, as well as two cousins between the ages of 12 and 14. The death of her loved ones and her own diagnosis inspired Morrell to get people screened for the disease.

In 2008, she founded Heartfelt Cardiac Projects, a nonprofit dedicated to providing heart screenings at community events. Heartfelt provides families two cardiac ultrasounds, considered the best for detecting symptoms of cardiac arrest: echocardiograms and electrocardiograms (EKG/ECGs), for a tax-deductible donation of $85 per patient.

“In 1999, when my father was still alive, we heard of a story of a young 16-year-old boy who died during football practice at Fountain Valley High School, and my father and I said that we had to do something," Morrell says. "It was ridiculous that these people weren’t understanding that these kids could be saved. My dad actually brought up the idea of doing cardiac-based screenings, so I started screening and I’ve been screening ever since. I just believe that my life has been spared to continue the work to save others. I feel blessed and privileged, and it’s an honor to do the work that I do."

In recognition of February as National Heart Month, Morrell is continuing her cause by offering a screening for anyone ages 5 and up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23, at Five Seasons Healthcare, an acupuncture center located in the Monarch Bay shopping center (28 Monarch Bay Plaza, Suite A) in Dana Point. Morrell offers these screenings in order to provide communities the opportunity to protect their loved ones from cardiac arrest.

To learn more or pre-register for a screening, click up the Heartfelt website here.