When I heard that Larry King Jr.(son of the celebrity broadcaster who founded the Larry King Cardiac Foundation) called St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta to accept an invitation to witness a robotic surgery performed at the Hospital, I jumped at the chance to photograph that event. You see, it was just two years earlier that I was a patient whose life (and heart) was in the hands of Dr. Douglas Murphy who used the DaVinci robot to repair my ailing heart. And it was that Foundation that helped with all those expenses associated with that surgery. Yes, I jumped at the chance to photograph Dr. Douglas Murphy and his surgical staff perform the same operation I underwent. I wanted to see that procedure from the perspective of an observer and not a patient. And what a wonderful experience it was.
The Larry Kind Cardiac Foundation has a relationship with Saint Joseph’s Hospital to help patients without health insurance. Larry King realized after his own open heat surgery several years ago that over 40 million working middle class American had no such insurance to help them with such catastrophe health issues. So he started his Foundation to help people like me -- working citizens who could not afford the high cost of health insurance. As far as I know there is no other foundation that addresses this problem.
Two years ago I found myself in need of help when I was diagnosed with a strep infection that destroyed my mitral heart valve. Dr. Nic Chronos and Dr. Douglas Murphy of St. Joseph’s came to my rescue -- along with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and my Greek Orthodox Church community in Atlanta. After a successful operation and a promising recovery, I have been working closely with these organization to further their philanthropic work to help the people in need.
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| Dr. Murphy and Larry King Jr. |
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| Surgical staff | | |
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| Dr. Murphy |
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Ted Cocian (CST)
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| Erin Popescu |
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| Dr. Murphy operating the DaVinci robot |
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| Heart/Lung machine |
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| Me in the O R, two years later. |
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| Larry King Jr., Chris Savas, Larry King |
I want to thank the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and
Saint Josephs of Atlanta for helping me through a very
difficult time when I needed their help.
Please support these very worth while organizations
in any way you can.
