PORT ANGELES — Tickets are on sale now for the Olympic Medical Center Foundation’s seventh annual Red, Set, Go! Heart Luncheon.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe will present the luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 28 at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Individual tickets are $50.
Those interested in sponsoring or attending the event can contact the foundation office at 360-417-7144.
All of the money raised at the luncheon will go to local cardiac service care, said Karen Rogers, foundation board president.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Samuel Youssef, a Swedish Hospital cardiac surgeon with specialization in robotic cardiac surgery.
The special honoree will be Jen Gouge, who recently retired after 17 years as the medical assistant coordinator for Peninsula College.
In 2008, the OMC Foundation launched a campaign to raise awareness about women’s heart health, promoting the idea that education is the key to eradicating the disease.
In the first five years the event has raised money to benefit patients through the Olympic Medical Center’s Cardiac Services Department and to fund a community-wide Automated External Defibrillator program in partnership with area law enforcement agencies.
Cardiac surgeon
Youssef found mentorship in minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgery among leaders in the field in Belgium and gained further research expertise in heart failure and cardiac transplantation at Imperial College in London.
He had studied philosophy and developmental biology at the University of California, Los Angeles before studying medicine in Cambridge, England.
He served as a trauma surgery and obstetrics house officer in Uganda.
Youssef trained in general surgery at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle and then pursued cardiothoracic surgery training at Yale University.
He has authored several books, book chapters and scientific articles.
Gouge trained many professionals who now are treating patients at Olympic Medical Center and other health care institutions.
She was essential to the start of many courses at the college, including two programs, infectious diseases and geriatrics.
“Because we have large population of people over 65 in Clallam County, I thought this was a real necessity, to have geriatric course work at the college,” Gouge said.
“Even more importantly, I thought we had to educate students about abuse of the elderly, which is so rampant.”
Gouge was twice invited to present papers on the social consequences of aging at Oxford University in England, the foundation said.
