Employees at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach form a giant heart to raise awareness for healthy hearts on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, National Wear Red Day. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Around 50 MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center employees wore red on Friday, Feb. 3, to raise awareness of heart disease – the nation’s top killer – and to support, in particular, the millions of women affected by the disease.
Employees at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach form a giant heart to raise awareness for healthy hearts on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, National Wear Red Day. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center employees kick off American Heart Month by celebrating National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in support of the millions of women affected by heart disease. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center employees kick off American Heart Month by celebrating National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in support of the millions of women affected by heart disease. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center employees kick off American Heart Month by celebrating National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in support of the millions of women affected by heart disease. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center employees kick off American Heart Month by celebrating National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in support of the millions of women affected by heart disease. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Ida Merline, vice president of the Memorial Heart and Vascular Institute, participates in National Wear Red Day on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Employees at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach form a giant heart to raise awareness for healthy hearts on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, National Wear Red Day. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The hospital workers gathered outside the Medical Center on Friday, on National Wear Red Day, and used their bodies to make a giant heart.
While both men and women show traditional symptoms of heart disease, such as chest pains or heart palpitations, women often have additional symptoms, such as fatigue, soreness in the arms or shoulders, and back pain — warning signs that could be easily dismissed.
Heart disease and stroke kill 1 in 3 women each year, according to the American Heart Association, but can be prevented with education and healthy lifestyle changes.
“There is a lot of microvascular changes that happen more frequently with women,” said Ida Merline, vice president of MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute at the Long Beach Medical Center. “It is one of the reasons that we want to bring awareness for women in our community.”
Wear Red Day is one of the ways the MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute is helping raise awareness of the disease and provide education to women in Long Beach during American Heart Month.
The institute specializes in minimally invasive heart procedures and covers multiple specialties, from birth to older adults, Merline said, with a dedicated team of professionals ready to serve the community.
There will be a Women’s Heart and Stroke Seminar later this month, on Feb. 25, to help educate the community. To register, visit memorialcare.org.
