Welcome our Director of Support Services - Caregivers Kathleen Whitworth

We are very excited to announce Kathleen Whitworth as our Director of Support Services for the Caregivers🎉

Kathleen, alongside of Teri Ali, will be moderating the Caregivers Only Private Form and he support group meetings (which now take place on the first Monday at 10pm EST and third Thursday at 8pm EST).

Kathleen as well as her husband Shannon, have been part of the Aortic Hope community since 2019 and we are so excited to have her volunteering in this role.

I currently live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin with my survivor-husband, Shannon, and our two kids, a son who is 15 and a daughter who is 12. Cedarburg is about 25 minutes north of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan.

"I am a high school French teacher. I have a Ph.D. in French and spent 17+ years at the university level before making the move to high school where I am just finishing my 2nd year. My son is finishing his freshman year at that same school.

Shannon dissected in February of 2019. He, too, is a teacher as well as a school administrator. During his class, he began to feel clammy and light headed and couldn’t get comfortable. After falling near his office, he was taken to our level 1 trauma center which he thankfully works close to. It is my assumption that the first responders knew what was happening, as did the ER doc (a graduate of the high school where my husband works!!), because after a 7 minute ride to the hospital, he was taken immediately to the CAT scan. Shortly after that is when I arrived, and he was wheeled away for a 9 hour surgery.

We are incredibly blessed. His surgeon was amazing as was the team. He is young (48 at the time) and strong and had no complications during surgery. He came home after 8 days and, with regular checkups and CAT scans, has been good ever since.

I found Aortic Hope after doing a Google search for support groups for caregivers. I am huge fan of therapy and support groups, so that was my first search once Shannon was home and settled. Since then, I’ve been a participant and occasional contributor to the different pages in an effort to share my story, help others, and receive support myself. " ~ Kathleen

Please welcome Kathleen❤️