Jim Clarke ’81 uses numbers to understand the world around him. As a statistician, he works with data to determine and minimize risk.

Today his chief concern rests with a single digit: two.

His 44-year-old wife, Gigi, suffered a heart attack and died while traveling on business in 2004. Gigi’s sister, Sally Czechanski, rushed to her side and just 90 minutes after arriving, had a fatal heart attack herself. She was 49.

Clarke was devastated.

“It’s very frustrating because what happened was totally preventable,” he said. “There’s no reason for anyone to have it go to that extreme.”

Both women had undiagnosed cardiomyopathy, more commonly known as an enlarged heart. Naturally, Clarke went searching for numbers.

“I couldn’t find any data to help understand ‘What just happened?’” he said. “We found out that there were no statistical studies whatsoever.”

With the support of his family, including brother Richard ’82, Clarke decided to do something about his discovery.

The mission of the 2 BigHearts Foundation, established in memory of Gigi and Sally, is to offer free screenings to women, assemble data for the medical community and educate the general public about the danger of heart disease — particularly cardiomyopathy — in women.

Since 2005, 2 BigHearts has screened more than 1,600 women at public clinics. Just about 8 percent of those women would have been flagged for cardiomyopathy risk factors, said Clarke.

The issue, he said, is these screenings are not a routine part of health care checkups.

“Women should be more demanding of their health care provider,” Clarke said. “The data we are collecting, we can show the providers that presumptions of likelihood are really flawed.

“This is not rare,” he added.

The foundation raises money through fundraising events and offers as many screenings as possible. A majority of the screenings happen in the Chicago area where Clarke lives, but 2 BigHearts has done events in other states as well.

— Shane M. Liebler

PHOTO CAPTION:
Sisters Sally Czechanski, left, and Gigi Clarke died on the same day of heart attacks that could have been prevented with treatment. Gigi’s husband, Jim Clarke ’81, founded 2 BigHearts to compile data about and raise awareness of heart disease in women.



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