❤️🫀 PLEASE JOIN US IN WELCOMING VICTOR AKINYEMI TO AORTIC HOPE! We are excited to welcome Victor Akinyemi as our new Social Media Administrator | Medical! 🎉 One of the things we are especially excited about is seeing more and more medical students choosing to get involved with Aortic Hope. "Hi! My name is Victor Akinyemi. I am a second-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated with the heart a

Please join us in giving a BIG Aortic Hope welcome to the newest member of our medical blogging team, Aditi Darodkar! 🫀❤️ We are thrilled to introduce Aditi as the voice behind a brand-new segment: ### 🧠 𝗔𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘 Let’s be honest—medical research can be A LOT. Study after study. Acronym after acronym. Big medical words that sometimes make you wonder, “Okay…but what does this actually mean for ME?” 🤔 That’s where Aditi comes in! Aditi

❤️ WELCOME TO THE AORTIC HOPE FAMILY, RILEY! ❤️ We are thrilled to welcome Riley Price as our new Community Liaison! Riley brings a genuine passion for awareness, movement, and connecting with people, and we are excited to see him take that passion into the community. His energy and commitment will help us reach more people, start important conversations, and remind our communities that knowing the signs, understanding your risk, and taking action can save lives. "Hello! My n

🎉 We are thrilled to welcome 𝗘𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗲𝗹, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁, as one of Aortic Hope’s newest 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀! ❤️🫀 Emmanuel has been taking the internet by storm with his compassionate, educational, and insightful posts about 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁. His ability to explain complex medical topics with empath

Please join us in announcing and welcoming Jared Lin to the Aortic Hope team as our newest medical student volunteer and social media blog writer! We’re excited to have Jared join our community and contribute his passion for education, awareness, and storytelling to help support patients, survivors, caregivers, and families impacted by aortic disease. Through thoughtful and engaging content, Jared will help share educational insights and strengthen our mission of connection,

Please join us in announcing and welcoming Zach Bokhari to the Aortic Hope team as our newest medical student volunteer and social media blog writer! We’re excited to have Zach join our community and contribute his passion for education, awareness, and storytelling to help support patients, survivors, caregivers, and families impacted by aortic disease. Through thoughtful and engaging content, Zach will help share educational insights and strengthen our mission of connection,

Please join us in welcoming our new medical student volunteer and social media blog writer, Anita Zahiri! We’re excited to have Anita join the Aortic Hope team and share her passion for education, awareness, and helping connect our community through meaningful content. Through her writing, Anita will help bring educational insights, fresh perspectives, and support to patients, survivors, caregivers, and families impacted by aortic disease. "Anita Zahiri is a first year medica

Please join us in announcing and welcoming Bonit Sharma as Aortic Hope’s newest Community Liaison! Bonit will help support our mission by sharing his story, raising awareness, and helping connect with others throughout the aortic community. At Aortic Hope, we believe that every story has the power to educate, inspire, and remind someone that they are not alone. Through advocacy, lived experience, and community connection, Bonit will help continue spreading hope and awareness

We are excited to welcome Shwu-Lin Sheu as our newest volunteer, supporting our fundraising efforts. We met Shwu-Lin at our most recent event, and her assistance was incredibly valuable. "I came across Aortic Hope when I searched for a support group to understand what happened to me and what to expect in my recovery. Like many others, there was no warning when I had my type a aortic dissection and emergency open heart surgery in July 2025. Glad that I found this community to

🎉🫀 Exciting News from Aortic Hope! 🫀🎉 We’re thrilled to welcome our newest volunteer, Community Liaison Jeremy Porter! 💙 Based in Canada, Jeremy will be working alongside our team and community to help bring our third patient guide to life: Aortic Hope: Real Stories, Real Recovery, Real Life We’re so excited to have him on board as we continue sharing powerful stories and expanding our global impact! 🌍✨ "As are many, I was unaware of what an aorta was until days after

We are so thrilled to announce Jason Beaty and our YouTube Producer. Jason will be responsible for recording and editing our AHTV on-air talent. "I'm Jason and I am 45, I live in Hagerstown, MD with my lovely Wife and 2 cats. I enjoy fishing, thrifting and walking on the beach looking for sea glass. I had my Aortic Dissection in October 2024, and I'm looking forward to giving back to this community that has helped me get my life back." Please welcome Jason!

Before we begin this Welcome Announcement, we want to give heartfelt thanks to Nicole Blackburn for her amazing service as our Treasurer over the past two years. Her dedication, care, and commitment made a meaningful difference to our community, and we are so grateful for all she has done. We will truly miss her in this role. Thank you, Nicole 💙 Now, we ask everyone to give a warm welcome to community member, survivor and supporter, Deb Oxborough on becoming our next Treasur

We are excited to announce Jack Nickles, a medical student joining us for 2026. He will be assisting with our medically related posts during the week. Please look for his contribution on Medical Monday's and Topic Tuesday's. "Hi! My name is Jack Nickles. I am a third year medical student at the University of Texas. I have been passionate about cardiac surgery, specifically aortic surgery, for a number of years now, and am currently taking a dedicated year for aortic surger

Welcome Nathalie Vendrys to Aortic Hope Canada! Nathalie will be hosting a French speaking Support Group in the very near future as well as help translate daily posts into French for those constituents in Canada where French is their native language. We are super excited to have Nathalie as a Director of Support Services and Social Media Administrator. “Bonjour, Hi” to each one of you! I am very excited to be able to volunteer my time and contribute to this wonderful organiza

🎉Aortic Hope is excited to announce another volunteer, Derek Reed. Derek will be a Creativity Associate. His passion for creating videos and other forms of awareness will be very useful in future campaigns. Derek grew up and live in southeast Idaho and is married with 2 little girls. He dissected on October 17, 2022 at the age of 39 years old and had an emergency repair and is happy to say he had a full recovery. Derek enjoys working with a variety of computer programs to cr

🎉Aortic Hope is excited to welcome Daphne Joy as our Director of Illumination! 💡Illumination Awareness Campaigns have two goals: To raise awareness of a disease and acknowledge those living with/supporting those with the disease, and to remember our loved ones we’ve lost due to the disease. 👉🏻Stay tuned for an announcement about Aortic Hope: Lighting the Way to Awareness during the entire month of September🎉 Daphne Grant brings 30 years of program management experience t

Aortic Hope is excited to welcome Steve Freeman as our newest Community Liaison! Steve will be hosting private "Walk & Talk" sessions beginning in September. We are so honored to have Steve motivating and inspiring others to Thrive and Not Just Survive through movement. Steven Freeman Jr. – Aortic Hope Volunteer & Wellness Coach Diagnosed with a Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm in 2023, Steven found strength and connection through the Aortic Hope community. Now a dedicated volunteer

We are very excited to welcome Dee Riete as a Community Liaison. Dee's focus will be on Wellness including Aromatherapy and Reiki. Dee Riete is a spiritual teacher, facilitator, author, certified aromatherapist, and Reiki Master with over 20 years of practice and teaching experience both in United States and Brazil. She is the founder of the Wellness Training Institute, where she has been integrating holistic approaches. Since a very young age, she learned that the body can h

We are happy to start July off with a special welcome to Mike Niederreither, our new volunteer in Administrative Services Mike is joining our team to help keep physicians and the community informed with the latest updates and resources, plus tackling other key projects. Mike was raised in rural central Pennsylvania and lives there today with his family. After high school, he attended college where he focused in the environmental field, receiving degrees in geology and hydrog

😊Join Aortic Hope in welcoming Anirudh "Ani" Karla to the team. Ani will be assisting with the creation of interesting medically-related posts for the organization. "Hey everyone! My name is Anirudh Karla, and I am a third-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. I am an aspiring cardiothoracic surgeon with a specific interest in disease processes affecting the valves of the heart and the aorta. I am so grateful and excited to join the Aortic Hope t