Meal Goes to the Heart of Fund-Raiser

Hearts were the theme of a Valentine’s Day gala Friday to celebrate the opening of the Heart Center of St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.

About 120 people, many of them cardiologists and their patients, gathered at the Center Club in Costa Mesa for a romantic, heart-healthy gourmet dinner. The $100-per-person dinner was expected to raise about $20,000 for the new facility.

Good for the Heart

With his guests’ health in mind, Center Club executive chef Edward Mitchell created a low-cholesterol gourmet dinner featuring hearts of palm and papaya salad with papaya seed dressing, sea bass wrapped in cabbage leaf and stuffed with spicy ratatouille and a baked nonfat yogurt in pastry with cinnamon glazed apples for dessert.

“I went to a heart association dinner years ago and the menu was steak and potatoes with butter. I thought ‘Someone’s not thinking correctly,”’ said Warren Johnston, a St. Joseph cardiologist and co-chairman of the evening. Johnston attended the dinner with his wife, Debbie, a gala committee member, who dressed head to toe in red for the gala.

Guests received copies of the chef’s recipes so they could try the meal at home.

In keeping with the romantic theme, each woman found a single long-stemmed rose by her plate and strolling classical musicians serenaded party-goers throughout the evening.

Clinic With a Heart

Guests also learned about the new heart center through speeches and a video. The center was created when all cardiac-related services at St. Joseph were consolidated into one clinic. It includes Orange County’s first chest pain center, an around-the-clock service in the hospital’s emergency care unit.

“The heart center deals with people in the acute stages of heart attack,” Johnston said.

“We wanted to designate part of the hospital so we can get to heart patients quickly. The sooner we administer drugs, the more likely we are to save more of the heart muscle and save their lives.”

Survivor’s Story

Nobody knows the importance of excellent cardiac services better than Walter Klosterman, chairman of the hospital board of trustees. While helping to organize the heart center, he suffered a heart attack three months ago and under went a bypass operation at St. Joseph.

“I’m a survivor of the system. I turned to my own hospital and they did a great job,” said Klosterman, looking healthy in a tuxedo with red bow tie and cummerbund.

“I’ll do anything to help the place.”

Others attending the Valentine’s Day gala: William Ostermiller, medical director of the heart center, and his wife, Roz, gala committee member; Wanda Cobb, gala co-chairwoman, and her husband, St. Joseph cardiologist Tyson Cobb; Linda Pierog, heart center director, and Dr. Terry Belmont, hospital director, and wife Pat.