Echo of Hope

Guessing game ends

When we last left our hero, he was headed off to headline the Heart Ball. There we talked to Ari’s cardiologist and surgeon about whether we should have surgery on May 12 to replace his pulmonary valve.

Later that week we learned that while he looked good on the outside, an MRI showed his right ventricle was holding more than twice the blood it should, contributing to very high pressure. It was time to act before damage became permanent. We’ve been waiting a year and half to find out when we would do this. Now the guessing game was over.

Our last post-surgical hospital stay was 4 months. Doctors said if this surgery was smooth sailing—and there was no reason it shouldn’t be—he could be home as fast as 3-4 days. You’d figure they knew Ari by now…

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Last night was the American Heart Associations annual gala Heart Ball. Ari was the featured heart warrior of the night. Here is a copy of my speech about Ari, along with the video Erica and I made to share a bit of Ari with everyone. It was a true honor to be a part of such a great event, and to get the opportunity to recognize Dr. Wayne Tworetzky and Dr. Ram Emani.

I posted the video up top here, but if you can stand waiting, watch it below where it appeared in the speech.

Also, it’s not in the speech as they noted it another time, but my next book, Insight Selling, just came out this week. For all books sold through May 10, we are donating all of our royalties to the American Heart Association’s fund for congenital heart defect research.

And here we were before we headed out to the event:

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