THE GIVING IT BACK AND PAYING IT FORWARD NEWSLETTER

Happy Fathers Day to… Everyone?

You guessed it: Fathers Day is June 18. But why should I mention this to you?

Well, since you have been kind enough to be part of our business, I wanted to take the opportunity to give you a free gift on Fathers Day. Chances are that you are not a dad, but I am sure the dads won’t mind. So I am going to go ahead and give you (and those you know) TWO very special free gifts.

Yes, TWO Gifts.

Gift #1 We will sell your home at your price, or we will buy it.*

Yes, this is the guarantee I am most famous for. And you will know that, whether it’s a super awesome real estate market or a housing recession, I have not wavered from this guarantee. The peace of mind from a guarantee like this is a fantastic gift.

I can think of none better. My team and I are committed to results. In fact, Results-Oriented is one of our core values. For more than 30 years, people have been coming to us when they want their home sold, at their price and with the least hassle. We look forward to the next 30 years of Guaranteed Results for L.A. homeowners. #coreychambers #realestate #news

Your Referrals Change Lives!

Go Serve Large!!! Investing In The People Of Our Great Community.

With The Corey Chambers Team, Your Referrals Really do Change Lives!

If you or a friend are thinking about selling, make sure to choose a real estate company you can trust!

A Real Estate Company That Gives Back!

Gift #2… Donations to one of the areas Leading NonProfits, CHLA Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. In last month’s letter, I updated you on our goal of raising $25,000 for CHLA. In case you missed it, we donate a portion of our income from home sales to help the kids. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is a 501(c)(3). a nonprofit institution that provides pediatric health care and helps young patients more than half a million times each year in a setting designed just for their needs. Its history began in 1901 in a small house on the corner of Alpine and Castelar Streets (now Hill St. in Chinatown) and today its medical experts offer more than 350 pediatric specialty programs and services to meet the needs of patients. CHLA provides more than $316.2 million in community benefits annually to children and families. As the first pediatric hospital in Southern California, CHLA relies on the generosity of philanthropists in the community to support compassionate patient care, leading-edge education of the caregivers of tomorrow and innovative research efforts that impact children at the hospital and around the world. YOUR REFERRALS HELP THE KIDS! Keep them coming!

Our goal: Raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles!

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team? Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service and ironclad guarantees but the kids of Children’s Hospital will benefit too! Just give me a call or pass my number on to anyone you know considering buying or selling. My number is 213-880-9910.

Your Referrals help the Kids!

Life moves fast for some and we are eager to make the Home Selling and Buying experience a smooth rewarding one. Over the last two decades of helping thousands of families sell their home and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! As we move forward this Summer, please know we are A Real Estate Company That Gives Back!

Thank you in advance for your referrals! My number is 213-880-9910.

Go Serve Big!!!

Corey Chambers

P.S. Check out the story enclosed of this amazing young person whose life was given back thanks to CHLA.

A real estate company with experience, proven results, and a give-back philosophy!

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move:

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online, or forward the link to someone you know considering a move.

Of course, you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910

Why I support Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

I grew up right here in the Greater Los Angeles Area, born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles Area California native, I take pride in supporting in a way that I can the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal or raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children”s Hospital Los Angeles shares similar commitment to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.

Sincerely,

Corey Chambers

*seller and Corey must agree on price and time of possession. Corey Chambers, Broker DRE#01889449

Genetic Testing Finds Lethal Heart Disease Lurking in Family

The painful discovery that a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was passed from a father to his three kids will ultimately help to protect all their lives. — By Jeff Weinstock (Courtesy CHLA)

If you were looking for a model of a double-edged sword, you couldn’t find one that cuts more sharply than Elias’ diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Soon after his disease was uncovered, Elias’ parents were sent to undergo genetic testing to see whether either of them had passed him the gene. The results ruled out mother Cecilia, but revealed that Rafael, Elias’ father, was the carrier.

“That’s when our story was just declining with bad news,” Cecilia says.

Viewed another way, Elias’ diagnosis may have been the very best bad news the family could have received. Or the worst good news. However you frame it, the consequences were at once devastating and fortunate, life-threatening and lifesaving.

A string of positive tests

The saga began only hours after Elias was born. A doctor’s stethoscope detected a murmur, suggesting some kind of interference around the heart, prompting an echocardiogram and an EKG to look further.

The tests indicated Elias had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a hereditary disorder causing thickening of the heart muscle that can obstruct blood flow into and out of the heart, potentially throwing the heartbeat off its regular rhythm and setting off fatal cardiac arrest. A local cardiologist reran the tests and came to the same finding. Elias’ heart was thickening rapidly, but this early in his life, there wasn’t anything to do beyond putting him on medication, a beta blocker to slow his heartbeat and prevent abnormal heart rhythm.

The one action that could be taken was to send Elias to the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles so he could be seen by specialists in CHLA’s Cardiogenomics Program, which treats patients with inherited heart conditions. There, the team ran genetic tests on Elias and identified a gene mutation linked to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

That meant Elias’ older sister, Zulay, then 3 years old, needed to be examined. At the local cardiologist’s office, the same outcome ensued: A murmur was heard and subsequent genetic testing turned up positive for HCM, prompting another referral to CHLA.

In the span of five months, Cecilia’s newborn son, her daughter and her husband were all found to have a life-threatening heart condition, leaving her “an emotional wreck,” she says.

Different degrees of disease

In July 2020, a third child, daughter Emilia, was born, and she too was found to have the HCM gene. The three kids all show different progressions of the disease. Elias’ case is the most advanced.

“At 12 months old, his heart was incredibly thick,” says CHLA cardiologist Jennifer Su, MD. “It’s nowhere near as striking now as it was back then.”

Elias’ condition appears less dramatic because over the past five years his heart has grown but has not gotten any thicker, so its thickness is now more proportionate to its overall size. It’s a fortunate development, and unusual, Dr. Su says.

“We typically think of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as a progressive condition. It’s quite unusual to see thickening up front and for it to regress over time. It’s not the pattern we would expect.”

Zulay’s heart, which had mild thickening initially, has behaved the same way. She was put on medication, but it was discontinued a year later after the disease showed no further growth.

Meanwhile, Emilia is on no medication as she has yet to show any manifestation of HCM other than the positive genetic test. “Emilia’s case is like what we would expect,” Dr. Su says. “We might not see it at first, and maybe in a few years we’ll start seeing it.”

Once a year all three kids—ages 3 (Emilia), 5 (Elias) and 8 (Zulay)—pile into the car to see Dr. Su for an evaluation. Between appointments with their local cardiologist and the visits to CHLA, they get monitored every six months.

It’s not an easy day for Cecilia. “Every time we go to the doctor,” she says, “I do fear hearing, ‘Hey, it got worse. This is going to be the next step now.’”

The annual assessment Dr. Su performs doesn’t stop at an echo and EKG. A Zio patch monitors the heart’s rhythm over a two-week period, and as the kids get older and can tolerate it, an MRI will be added to check for scarring, which would indicate greater thickening in the heart and more potential for arrhythmias. The most recent visit, at the end of March, showed no changes.

Dr. Su says there’s less to fear at this stage, as HCM often stabilizes in the time between infancy and adolescence and then starts to advance again. “Elias’ heart may become more severely hypertrophied as he gets into his teens,” she says.

To be clear, not having visible symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy does not negate the presence of it. It may be idle, but it’s there.

“Intrinsically,” Dr. Su says, “Elias’ heart has an abnormal genetic code that caused pretty significant hypertrophy when he was an infant. It’s not as severe looking at the moment, but certainly, especially considering his dad’s diagnosis, it may become a bigger problem.”

Defusing a time bomb

Rafael lived 26 years—he’s now 31—before his son’s diagnosis led to the discovery that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Initial tests showed such pronounced enlargement of his heart, doctors told him they were stunned he was still alive. “They can’t explain how I lived this long without any symptoms,” he says.

He was immediately prescribed a beta blocker, and after delaying surgery for years, on April 1 he had a device installed in his chest called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The ICD acts just like an external defibrillator, shocking the heart back into a normal rhythm if it detects an irregular heartbeat.

Rafael put off having surgery mostly from a lack of certainty that he needed it after playing contact sports in high school and college—which someone with HCM is advised not to do.

But he came around, understanding the operation was imperative, as his doctors likened his heart to a time bomb that could detonate without warning.

“I could be driving and I could have a heart attack,” he says. “Or working out, or just walking. There’s no way to gauge when it’s going to happen. I have to see tomorrow and see the next day and see many more years.”

Saving up a thank you

After the family’s diagnoses of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Rafael and Cecilia prioritized better health habits. Exercise is part of the effort, endorsed by the doctors. That wasn’t always the case, Dr. Su says.

“When I trained about 10 years ago,” she says, “the overwhelming recommendation was to restrict patients from high-intensity activity. There was a lot of concern for arrhythmias or risk for something happening.”

But that recommendation created sedentary children and adults who were developing disorders stemming from their inactivity—obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease, which have no connection to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

“We told them not to exercise, and we can’t actually say we saved any lives or saw decreased likelihood of sudden death or arrhythmias,” Dr. Su says.

Current guidelines instruct doctors to discuss with families the benefits and risks of exercise based on the extent of their child’s disease, and then to together arrive at a plan.

“At this time, we recommend that Elias and his siblings participate in any recreational sport as long as they’re allowed to rest when they’re tired,” Dr. Su says. “There is a risk. We’re just not going to allow that risk to be very high.”

Even that thin level of risk leaves Cecilia to worry.

“I try not to let it get the best of me,” she says, “but with three kids and my husband all having the same heart condition, I can’t just be like, ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’ It’s hard not to think about it.”

Rafael struggles too. He still thinks often about being the source of the disease. “I wish I could take it from my kids,” he says. “I wish they didn’t have to carry that burden like I do.”

But he learned to look at his son’s diagnosis as a “blessing in disguise,” he says, as it tipped him off to his own disease and may well keep him around in his kids’ lives for many decades more. “If he was never born, I would have never found out.”

In time, he will deliver his gratitude to his son. “When he’s old enough to understand, we’ll have conversations. Every day when I hold him, he’s a blessing to me because he saved my life. He really did.”

— Story and photos courtesy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

How you can help:

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members who are considering making a move:

www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey at 213-880-9910

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Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with information provided by Corey Chambers, Broker, DRE#01889449 We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit LAcondoInfo.com Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.