All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine.
- Jim Rohn
We are so grateful to have you join our upcoming wedding celebration. Life has given us many blessings including health and success, and for that reason we would like to give back to our community. In lieu of a wedding gift, we kindly ask you to consider supporting our project called Inherited Arrhythmias Croatia.
Inherited arrhythmias are genetic conditions that one is born with that predisposes one to life-threatening arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death. They affect approximately 4500 children and adults in Croatia; however, the exact prevalence is unknown as there is currently no Cardiologist specializing in Inherited Arrhythmias taking care of this vulnerable patient population. As a result, kids and adults go undiagnosed, untreated and unnecessarily die from a manageable and treatable condition.
One example is long QT syndrome (LQTS), which affects 1 in 2000 people or 2000 children and adults in present-day Croatia. It is the most well-known and thoroughly researched inherited arrhythmia that generally has a good outcome. However, the mortality rate is up to 20% in those left untreated and die within 1 year of a fainting episode. The mortality rate is significantly decreased to 1% with the right treatment. This highlights the importance of having a center of excellence in Croatia to take care of these at-risk children and adults.
Most of you are parents, aunts/uncles and perhaps soon-to-be grandparents and the thought that your little ones do not have the care they need in case they are born with an inherited arrhythmia is unimaginable. We are committed to changing that.
As most of you know, Anica works at The Hospital for Sick Children (“SickKids”) in Toronto, and they are the #2 ranked paediatric hospital in the world. Over the past 6 years as a Staff Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist, Anica has sharpened her inherited arrhythmia expertise and is ready to apply that in underserved areas. Anica is moving full-time to Croatia in 2025 to help establish an Inherited Arrhythmia Program.
We have already started our Inherited Arrhythmia project with the first symposium in October 2023 attended by 80 persons and right after the symposium, we very quickly received feedback that participants were able to diagnose three children with inherited arrhythmias. Anica has also worked with the team at Rebro (Croatia’s top Cardiology Centre) on complex cases they have, and moderates quarterly online education sessions with the symposium participants. We will have our second symposium in the Spring of 2025.
The idea is to establish a clinic for diagnosis and treatment in one of the existing hospitals in Croatia since all the equipment needed exists and reimbursement for diagnosis and treatment already exists in our system today. What does not exist is a small team that will operate the Inherited Arrhythmia clinic, and this is what Anica will lead.
What we ask is instead of spending money on a wedding gift for us, you donate to our Inherited Arrhythmias Croatia GoFundMe Project. The majority of the proceeds will be used for educating the Inherited Arrhythmia team and funding their 3–4-year fellowships at SickKids or another top-tiered institution. Each fully funded year will cost approximately 60,000 Euro and the good news is we only need 1-2 individuals. The total budget is under 500,000 Euro and part of this will come from our wedding celebrations. Respectfully, we will not be accepting any personal wedding gifts.
We plan to establish Croatia as the Inherited Arrhythmia center of excellence for the entire region since no such program exists in either Croatia or our neighbouring countries. We would love for you to be a part of our mission of saving Croatian children’s lives and this is the best gift you can give us.
Sincerely,
Anica and Fred Hrkać