MIDDLETOWN, Conn., February 18, 2016: U.S. Rep Rosa DeLauro got good news about her blood pressure during a visit Wednesday to Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) to highlight the importance of heart health and the national Million Hearts Campaign to encourage people to be aware of their blood pressure and, if high, help make control their goal.
“Perfectly normal” was the verdict from CHC nurse practitioner Kaitlin Adams after she performed the simple test on DeLauro.
Mark Masselli, CEO and president of CHC, introduced DeLauro and praised her steadfast support for quality healthcare and biomedical research. He also expressed appreciation for her long support for CHC and its preventive care programs, such as nutritional counseling, weight management, and the smoking cessation program that provides smokers with counseling and financial incentives to quit cigarettes.
“We have a strong health network here in Middletown,” said Rep. DeLauro, complimenting CHC, and the primary care services it provides to the uninsured and medically underserved. “It is our moral responsibility to have this sort of network nationwide,” said DeLauro, an ovarian cancer survivor and a member of the Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Subcommittee in Congress, who has fought hard to protect women’s health.
Heart attack survivor Leigh Pechillo spoke of her own heart attack and of the congenital heart disease faced by her family. “Funds for research raised by the American Heart Association during my lifetime have helped keep me and so many others alive,” said Pechillo, who has been a volunteer for the
organization for nearly a decade.
Rep. Matt Lester, D-Middletown, talked about the importance of legislative efforts to promote and support preventive healthcare services. “Investing in prevention just might be worth a pound of cure,” he said.
Middletown Mayor Daniel Drew spoke of his experience as an emergency medical technician and an early call he made to the house of a friend’s father who had died of a heart attack. “It had a profound experience on me,” Drew said.
DeLauro spoke proudly about her work to improve funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and emphasized the importance of preventive care to promote overall good health. She urged everyone to get blood pressure screening. “Find the time to do it,” she said.