The Larry King Cardiac Foundation

Heart patient thanks Davie girl, 12, for raising funds for surgery
Friday, May 22, 2009

A 12-year-old Davie girl today met for the first time the woman whose life she recently helped save.

MIAMI - A 12-year-old Davie girl today met for the first time the woman whose life she recently helped save.

Since December, Brooke Steinberg, a seventh-grader at University School in Davie, has raised about $2,500 by selling lemonade, brownies and wristbands in her neighborhood with help from her family and friends.

The money helped pay for heart surgery a Miami housekeeper underwent March 17 at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

"She's my angel," the housekeeper, Rita Hurtado, 53, of Miami, said as she hugged Brooke during a meeting at the hospital today.
"I'm honored," Brooke said.

Brooke's philanthropic efforts began last year when she decided to conduct a good deed to honor her grandmother, Sandra Colsky, who died of heart disease six years ago.

She researched organizations on the Internet and decided to team up with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., to raise money to help save the life of another grandmother suffering from heart problems.

The foundation funds heart operations for working-class people who don't have health insurance or can't afford the cost of such operations.

"I thought it [the foundation] was very special," Brooke said.

She said she wrote a letter to Larry King Jr., 47, president of the cardiac foundation and son of CNN show host Larry King. She told him how she wanted to help.

"He was touched by it," she said. "He told me he was very honored."

She raised funds for months and later "found out I was saving the life of a grandmother. It was amazing," Brooke said.

King estimated that because Hurtado had no insurance, she could have faced paying up to an estimated $100,000 for surgery to treat her aortic stenosis, a form of heart disease that impedes blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body.

Aside from Steinberg's donation, the surgery's cost was drastically lowered thanks to an $80,000 aortic valve that was obtained through a separate donation, King said.

Hurtado, who has four children and five grandchildren, was released from Jackson Memorial Hospital about 13 days after her operation and is now fully recovered.

Brooke and Hurtado met today at the hospital and celebrated by eating chocolate. Today was Hurtado's 53rd birthday.

Doctors "tell me I'm in perfect condition," Hurtado said, smiling.