Diana Lee

Dr. Beverly Kyer Needs Our Help: Urgent Cardiac Care We are writing on behalf of our colleague, mentor, and friend, Dr. Beverly Kyer, to ask for your support during a medical and financial crisis that is now threatening her access to essential cardiac care. Many of us found Beverly through her work: a training, her book, a colleague whose life she shaped. Others have known her for years. What most of us share is the experience of being in her presence and feeling like she actually understood what this work costs. She has spent 46 years standing alongside helping professionals and the people they serve, including children with cancer and their families, veterans with PTSD, and individuals in the foster care system. She is someone who made the unbearable feel survivable. What fewer people know is how much her work cost her too. In her book Surviving Compassion Fatigue: Help for Those Who Help Others, Beverly writes openly about her own first cardiac episode. She woke one morning to what she thought was a paper bag crumpling in her room, only to realize it was her heart. Years of accumulated grief, held quietly and without enough release, had taken a physical toll. That experience became the foundation of everything she went on to teach: that compassion fatigue is not weakness, but a real physiological response to chronic stress, and that helpers deserve care too. Her mission, in her own words, was to help others "recharge your mind, body, and spirit" so that we can "remain vital and available to help those in need." Two years later, she experienced another cardiac episode. Then, after 46 years of service, a third event: near-fatal heart failure and a diagnosis of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy, known as “broken heart syndrome.” Despite her efforts to recover, she was not healing. So she made a life-saving decision: she left the United States to begin again in Portugal, seeking not just treatment, but a level of peace her body had not known in years. She arrived with enough income from training and consulting contracts to support herself. Within months, her condition began to stabilize. For the first time in a long time, her body was no longer in a state of decline. Then, circumstances changed. Widespread funding cuts across human services in the United States led to the loss of those contracts. At the same time, Beverly’s savings lost nearly 12% of their value as the dollar fell against the Euro, a direct consequence of international uncertainty around U.S. economic policy. What she had carefully set aside quietly shrank. Meanwhile, delays in her residency process have limited her access to subsidized healthcare. Beverly is now paying out of pocket for essential cardiac medications and ongoing treatment, and these costs have exceeded her savings. She has begun skipping refills. Until her residency is complete, there is no safety net. This is an immediate risk to her continuity of care. We’re reaching out to our community for support so Beverly can access the medication and treatment she needs without interruption. We are asking for help covering her urgent medical needs now, and for support in building a fund that can carry her through challenges ahead - because this journey is not over. Beverly has spent her career reminding us that we cannot care for others while running on empty. Now it is our turn to show up for her. Whether you are able to contribute financially or share her story, every act of support matters. Thank you for being part of this. Funds will be used for: cardiac medication and ongoing healthcare costs, basic living expenses during loss of income, and residency-related expenses while awaiting full healthcare access.