Barr honors late wife on Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day by getting heart checked

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Congressman Andy Barr appeared on Good Morning America Wednesday to highlight Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day and encourage Americans around the nation to get their hearts checked in honor of his late wife.

Barr lost his wife due to a heart condition in 2020.

He’s since worked on bringing awareness to the disease and passing legislation known as the CAROL Act, which provides $20 million to support research on valvular heart disease.

It also allocates $8 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase public awareness regarding symptoms and strategies for preventing sudden cardiac death.

“What this bill does is authorize a bi-partisan bill that was signed into law at the end of last year. It will provide $28 million annually to the National Heart-Lung Blood Institute for Research to give cardiologists the tools to determine — to differentiate — between those patients who have a benign condition and those patients with a life-threatening condition, like my wife had, to get that early detection and intervention that these folks need,” Barr said.

Barr also got his own heart checked at St. Joseph Hospital in Lexington today.