{"id":27986,"date":"2018-12-04T12:38:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T17:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=27986"},"modified":"2020-02-26T17:04:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T22:04:17","slug":"fran-zilko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2018\/12\/04\/fran-zilko\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Fran Zilko (1939 &#8211; 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On behalf of our community&#8230; \u00a0I am sending thoughts, prayers, condolences and love to the family and friends of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/journals\/user\/franzilko\">Fran Zilko<\/a>. \u00a0I was soooo very sad to learn that Fran, who had successful aortic valve replacement surgery in 2010, \u00a0passed away after a fall and issues with her kidneys, lungs and heart. \u00a0Born in 1939, Fran was a nurse, a wife to Peter, a mother to Christine, Teresa and Stephen, and a grandmother to Michael, Katya and Frances.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27990\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/fran1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"546\" \/>Fran with Peter<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>At HeartValveSurgery.com, Fran was an extraordinary support engine for so many patients in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/journals\/\">community<\/a>. \u00a0Fran joined us in 2010 as she prepared for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/aortic-valve-replacement-surgery.php\">aortic valve replacement<\/a> due to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/aortic-stenosis-valve-heart-narrowing.php\">aortic stenosis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">atrial fibrillation<\/a>. \u00a0Her willingness to share her story and help others was boundary-less. \u00a0 I was &#8220;wow&#8217;ed&#8221; by the strong bonds that Fran formed with other patients. \u00a0Seeing her posts inspired me to continue building our community.<\/p>\n<p>The special friendships that Fran formed at HVS transcended this website. \u00a0That&#8217;s right. \u00a0Fran and several heart valve patients from HVS would get together for &#8220;Spring Break&#8221; in Florida. \u00a0\u00a0I&#8217;ll never forget seeing the smiling pictures of Fran, Peter, Duane, Cheryl, Duane and Peggy together. \u00a0Simply wonderful!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/sping-break-heart-valve-reunion.jpg\" width=\"550\" height=\"374\" \/>HVS Members &#8211; Duane, Peggy, Peter, Cheryl, Fran, Peter<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are no perfect words to write in moments like these. \u00a0There is sorrow. \u00a0There is loss. \u00a0But, there is thankfulness. \u00a0I am thankful for Fran. \u00a0I am thankful for her spirit. \u00a0And, I&#8217;m so thankful to Fran for helping me learn how to be of more service to others.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27989\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/fran2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"420\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A memorial service will be held Wednesday, December 5th, 10:00 AM, at St. Katharine Drexel Parish, 1922 SW 20th Ave., Cape Coral, Florida 33991. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Feed My Starving Children or the Harry Chapin Food Bank.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/journals\/user\/franzilko\">Visit Fran&#8217;s Heart Valve Journal<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/franzilko\">See Fran&#8217;s Facebook page (login required)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My thoughts and prayers are with Fran!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-stories"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}