Heart Valve Sisters, Alina and Wanda, Connect in Michigan!
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: July 9, 2025
When I started HeartValveSurgery.com in 2006, I didn’t know what I was doing. I simply knew that I wanted to help one patient avoid the challenges and setbacks that I experienced during my heart surgery journey. With over 10 million website visits and more than 500,000 social media followers, I am happy and humbled to know that my initial goal was thankfully achieved. Now, my goal has gotten a bit bigger… To raise global awareness to this under-diagnosed and under-treated disease that unfortunately claims the lives of over 25,000 people annually.
With that goal in mind, we have built many educational resources to help patients learn about their disease, their treatment options and their care providers. One of my favorite resources is our online Community. In the Community, patients and their care partners connect to share their experiences in a thoughtful, caring and unique way. You can see these wonderful exchanges in the posts at our Patient News Feed.
Every so often, I hear and see stories of patients who form incredibly strong bonds online which inspire them to meet “in-person”.
This exact act recently happened when Wanda Mroz and Alina Wilson connected in Detroit, Michigan. Wanda is a mitral valve patient and Alina is an aortic valve patient. Together, Wanda and Alina have not only helped each other but they have supported many other patients in our online Community. Above is a picture that Wanda and Alina posted in our Community which celebrated this special moment.
Along with the picture, Alina posted at her Heart Valve Journal:
I joined this wonderful platform of support and camaraderie (the HVS site) put together so generously by Adam in 2016. The 2015-2016 class of folks who were traveling this journey with me supported each other through this amazingly difficult journey of heart-valve surgery. We all had a unique story and singular outcomes. But our desire to connect and support each other was the same for all of us. 9 years later, I and some of the people I met here still talk periodically and still support one another as the heart disease journey never stops. Today, I had the amazing privilege of meeting one of my HVS friends in person while visiting family in Michigan. These in-person meetings are my favorite. They are such a gift! Thank you, Wanda for meeting me and thank you for the years of friendship! Thank you, Adam, for making this friendship possible!Good luck and good health to everyone on your own journeys!
Shortly thereafter, Wanda posted:
Yesterday, I was able to meet another Heart Valve Sister Warrior in person! Alina and I have supported each other through our journeys since 2016. It was lovely to spend some time with Alina and her husband who came to Michigan to visit family. I’m really glad we can make it happen.
So you know… When I started the Community, I never expected that patients would meet in-person. I simply wanted to create a way that patients could instantly realize that they were not alone in this journey. Now, however, thanks to Alina, Wanda and so many others, our Community members are meeting in-person to continue and expand their special relationships.
As you can see in the pictures and links below, there really is something special when patients cross-over from an online setting to meeting in-person. Here is the picture and story of Louise (Lisa) Moore from Florida, and Randy and Ginny, who are both from Texas.
Lisa, Randy and Ginny (Heart Valve Patients)
And, here is the picture and story of John from New Jersey and Larry from Louisiana who scheduled their operations together at the Cleveland Clinic.
John & Larry (Heart Valve Patients)
Thanks to Wanda and Alina for making my day by sharing their recent connection with our Community. I also want to thank all the members of this Community for their extraordinary support of each other — both online and in-person.
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
