Beth Hammond Presents at HSFA Annual Meeting

Beth Hammond (Class XI) presented at the Heart Failure Society of America's (HFSA) 21st annual scientific meeting in Dallas, TX on September 16-19. We are excited to have her join Waterford as a new student! 

What is your research about and what were your key findings?
I did research about immunologic activators in heart donors and the effect that they have on recipients. Specifically, I looked at donor cause of death and donor sex, and the outcome of recipients. I found that recipients who received a heart from a donor who died from a more traumatic cause of death (in the case of my research I focused on motor vehicle accidents) were more likely to die from heart failure. I also found that recipients who received hearts from female donors were more likely to die from heart failure. 

How did you become interested in heart failure and transplants?
This project started out as an assignment for my AP chemistry class last year. I was required to complete a project for a state-wide high school science symposium, and this is what I chose to do.

Was anyone else involved with your project?
My grandma, Dr. Elizabeth Hammond, had access to databases with heart donor and recipient records, of which she sent me an extract. She also gave me background information about heart transplant and heart failure so that I could have an idea of what to research. A statistician back in Fairbanks, AK helped me to run statistics on the data.