The History of Mended Hearts

The fabulous fifties! Truman told us the buck stops here, and it did as we went to war in Korea. We liked Ike and we loved Lucy. David said, “Goodnight,” to Chet and Chet said, “Goodnight,” to David. The fifties saw the first Big Mac, the first business computer, the first credit card, . . . and the first Mended Hearts meeting.

Those of you who can remember, think back to what you were doing in 1951. A young woman named Ruth made a life-changing decision when she accepted a marriage proposal from Fulton Johnson, and Doris Silliman was a patient at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, MA. After a history of rheumatic fever, this small, alert woman was limited in her physical capacity. She hoped that science could offer her something miraculous to enable her to live long enough to raise her son, and perhaps have other children. She found her miracle as one of the first fifty patients to have heart surgery. Known as “The Inspired One”, she was so excited after surviving the surgery that she literally walked the halls of the hospital looking for anyone to tellhow wonderful it was to be alive.

Dr. Dwight Harken, her surgeon, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the Brigham, is known as the father of heart surgery and the Father of Mended Hearts. The first surgeon to have repeated success in operating on hearts, he said, “We discovered that the heart wasn’t such a mysterious and untouchable thing after all.”

In January 1951 he asked Doris Silliman, along with three other post-surgery heart patients, Keith Otto, Alford Santimassino, and Elizabeth Wilkinson, to meet at the hospital to encourage each other and other patients. They talked of many things - their new feeling of well being, their plans and hopes for the future, and with renewed happiness they spoke of their ìmended hearts.î From their conversations together, they realized how wonderful it would be to help others who would be facing the same experience.

With the assistance of Doctor Harken they formed an organization, wrote up a charter, and planned their membership contacts with the aid of the hospital workers. The group was on its way to new growth and further development. They named the group by capitalizing on the words they used in referring to themselves, the Mended Hearts. They often said how great it was to be alive, and Dr. Harken added, ìand to help others.î At a meeting of these early members of the organization they chose their officers and planned meetings with other postoperative patients. Walter Abernathy became the President; Paul LaJeunesse and Reno (Chip)

Marini, Vice-Presidents; Lee Bowden, Secretary; and Ida Chartkoff was appointed National Treasurer. It was during this administration that Lee Bowden started the visiting program. She wrote, “As far back as the beginning of the visiting program, the hospital insisted that visitors be selected, oriented, and trained as to the proper techniques of visiting. Mended Hearts has always been firm about training, and it must continue for the benefit of all concerned.”

Mrs. Bowden remembers, “And a nicer person I never knew. Walter Abernathy was a tall, eager, pleasant person with a real sense of humor. He wore glasses and had a ready smile. He was gracious, responsive, and refreshing. His enthusiasm for the Mended Hearts and their future was utmost in his mind.

“When he was president, I was executive secretary, and he believed in executives having secretaries working for them. We had much fun about routine work, and when I look at some of the old correspondence and see that all my letters to him were directed to the ëBossí, it brings back many happy hours, not over-worked ones, with the Mended Hearts and their meetings.

“While our meetings were less formal when we were the Mended Hearts Club, Walter never ceased to fill us with laughter and fun along with the business sessions. But you must not be deceived that he did not get all the business of Mended Hearts accomplished, too. He was much more limited physically than most of us at that time, but we tried to do all the legwork for him. It seemed to work out very well. The spirit was high and this, somehow, helped to take care of the limited physical strength. Our workers were intensely interested and much of the membership near enough to be contacted easily.”

Their first year was full of hopes and ambitions for all who had been ill before the miracle of surgery. This new surgery was the first offer of help these people had found. In 1952 they decided to hold annual meetings. Little did they realize what they had started!

On June 5, 1953, a gathering of Dr. Harkenís heart patients surprised their surgeon with a birthday party, sparked by former jockey Albert (Fitzy) Fitzpatrick, who was the first executive secretary of the group. Described as a slight, wiry man with dark, beady eyes that showed his enthusiasm, he was thrilled at his better health after heart surgery and was restless until he could be on the track again and on his way traveling with the horses. He was very energetic, always thinking of new ways to get people into Mended Hearts. Dr. Harken did not want this to become a fan club and wisely suggested that the association be opened to all surgically mended heart patients, regardless of who their surgeon was, or where the surgery had taken place.

The next day, the first Annual Meeting was held at the Boston Club in Boston, MA. About fifty people attended. It wasnít until the fourth annual convention in 1956 that Morris Chartkoff instituted the first conventionadvertising souvenir book and the event became self-supporting.

A chapter of Mended Hearts was established in Worcester, MA, in 1954 under the leadership of Paul LaJeunesse and Agnes (Nan) Emery, who is believed to be the first Chapter Chairman. Margaret Livingston and Martha Finn developed the visiting program for the
chapter. Lee Bowden was the first person to be an authorized hospital visitor.

She taught the regulations of hospital visiting to Ida Chartkoff, the second authorized hospital visitor. Instruction Booklet #1, Mended-Hearts Hospital Visiting, the first Visiting Manual, was published in 1956. It established the ìrigid rulesî for visiting. The first page required the signatures of two physicians, a hospital official, and the Visiting Chairman of the national organization for a visitor to be authorized for hospital visiting.

At that time members fell into two categories - active members, who were heart surgery patients, and associate members, who had not had surgery. Their pins had a small ìAî in the corner.

A “Walking Blood Donor” program, initiated by MHI in Boston, helped provide the fresh blood needed in the area for the pump-oxygenator used during open heart surgery at that time.

In 1954 Dr. Harken suggested starting a Boston chapter, which formed under the leadership of Gertrude Wilfert, its first Chapter Chairman. As The Mended Hearts, Inc. continued to grow, the first chapter outside of Massachusetts was chartered in Nashville, TN, in 1958. Chapter 20 in Boston and Chapter 29 in Nashville are the oldest continuously active chapters in the organization today.

Mended Hearts was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1955 with the assistance of Bernard Vernon, Esq., and a constitution and bylaws were adopted. On April 4, 1956, The Mended Hearts, Inc. received tax exempt status as an organization “operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.”