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DVT Connections

Inside This Issue

Melanie's Corner
Patient Spotlight
Coming Soon: Patient
Support Toolkit
Welcome New Members

Melanie's Corner

Dear Friends,

Thanks to the dedication of Coalition members and participants, we had yet another successful DVT Awareness Month this year through our new campaign, DVT Awareness by Design. The program encouraged individuals to design their own socks to show their support for DVT Awareness Month. We are thrilled with the amount of responses we have received – if you haven't already, check out some of our "designer" socks on www.preventdvt.org in the DVT by Design Photo Album page.

We're off the charts with numbers…more than 5,000 kits were distributed and more than 2,700 hospitals participated in DVT Awareness by Design activities – far exceeding our expectations!

In other related news during DVT Awareness Month this past March, Coalition Steering Committee member, Dr. Franklin Michota and I appeared on The Today Show. NBC's Ann Curry, who participated in the Coalition's 2007 Public Service Announcement (PSA), led the interview and premiered the PSA. I hope you've had a chance to see that PSA; to-date our 2007 PSA has reached over 162 million people.

We embarked on a road trip, too, as several Coalition members and I traveled to hospitals across the country, including New York Presbyterian Hospital, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and The Cleveland Clinic. During my travels, I met many people and was inspired by their stories related to DVT. Their personal stories remind me how important it is for us to continue to raise awareness.

Through our Coalition efforts, I participated in a unique event this past May in conjunction with the Parsons' School of Design and their annual student fashion show. At that event, I presented an award, in memory of the late Professor Stacie Nipps at the "2007 Line Debut" fashion event. Stacie was a beloved professor who died from complications of DVT on her honeymoon at the young age of 31. In honor of Stacie's memory, the school and its faculty have pledged a commitment to bring DVT awareness to the fashion community and beyond. I look forward to working with Parsons' again in the future!

I wish to thank everyone again for your ongoing efforts to help to raise awareness of DVT. Knowledge is power and through our commitment we are making a difference for DVT patients and their loved ones. I look forward to sharing more information with you in our next newsletter. In the meantime, please continue to send us your personal DVT stories and check back on www.preventdvt.org for new updates!

Warm Regards,

BRINGING DVT TO THE PUBLIC FORUM

State and Federal government officials support DVT Awareness Month

Texas passed a joint resolution in support of DVT Awareness Month on March 12. Senator Jane Nelson, Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee and Representative Dianne Delisi, Chairman of the Committee on Public Health introduced a joint resolution to help kick off the fourth annual national DVT Awareness Month in Austin, Texas.

Pennsylvania took action and issued a proclamation in support of DVT Awareness Month on March 13 in Harrisburg, PA. Melanie Bloom was joined by Coalition Steering Committee member, Dr. Geno Merli, Governor Rendell and Senator Robert Mellow, the Democratic Senate Floor Leader.

On March 14, members of the Coalition met with seven offices on the House and Senate side of Capitol Hill to discuss DVT prevention and care on a national level. Melanie Bloom, ESPN Sports Broadcaster and DVT survivor Bonnie Bernstein and Dr. Geno Merli provided information on DVT, the efforts of the Coalition, and their own personal DVT stories.

PATIENT SPOTLIGHT: Linda Grohs

DVT Diaries allows individuals to share their personal stories and to provide hope. This series can be found on the DVT Diaries page; continue to check back as new chapters are released or register online to receive chapters via email. Below please find an excerpt of our third chapter of DVT Diaries, by Linda Grohs.

"My Husband Didn't Have to Die"

One day my husband, Jim, was active, athletic and enjoying life. The next day he was gone. His death from complications of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) was a terrible shock to me, and six years have done little to ease the pain. The worst part is knowing that it didn’t have to happen – that if anyone had warned us that Jim was at risk for DVT and told us how we could avoid it, he might still be here today.

Joining the campaign

I have since learned that that's the nature of DVT. When I heard the news of David Bloom's death in 2003, it felt like another devastating loss. In the two years since Jim had died, I had done a lot of reading about DVT and knew how it happened. But I still was shocked that complications from DVT had taken yet another life. Why didn't somebody tell David he was at risk? For that matter, why wasn't somebody telling everybody about DVT?

Soon after, I saw Melanie Bloom on Larry King Live and realized that somebody was doing just that. I wanted to help in any way I could. When I went to the Coalition to Prevent DVT Web site, I saw "Share your story" and typed in the story of Jim's and my experience with DVT. If telling our story makes just one person more aware of the symptoms of this condition, I'll be grateful…

Coming Soon: Patient Support Toolkit

This fall the Coalition will be launching a Patient Support program that will include the development of a toolkit to serve as a resource to patients and healthcare providers.

The goal of the toolkit is to provide interactive patient/provider materials that will assist in the diagnosis and treatment of DVT.

The toolkit is organized into four sections: 1. KNOW about DVT and your risk; 2. MANAGE your life after having DVT; 3. ASK questions to better understand your condition; and 4. TRACK your risk factors, symptoms and lifestyle habits.

It is our hope that the Patient Support Toolkit will open the door to an ongoing dialogue about DVT between patient and healthcare provider.

Patient education tools included in the toolkit:

Deep-Vein Thrombosis Patient Educational Brochure
Deep-Vein Thrombosis Frequently Asked Questions
Where to Find Out More about DVT (to include additional resources, Web sites, etc.)
How to Create a Support System (including information about creating a team within your own family, with physicians and other healthcare providers, with patients and like-minded individuals, and in the workplace)

As a result of DVT Awareness by Design Coalition activities, we have five new members, which expands the Coalition’s membership to 48 organizations.

Please Welcome:

Medstar Health
National Association Directors of Nursing Administration
Society for Vascular Surgeons
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

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