HOW RANDI ROLLS:
Heart Center Team Gets Bowler Back to the Lanes
A 300-point game is every bowlerʼs
goal. In life, amateur bowler Randi
Suppes is doing that and more. A wife,
mother and grandmother … a retired
travel agent who explored Australia,
Bali, Italy, Singapore and more … a
dedicated Yavapai Regional Medical
Center (YRMC) and Mended Hearts
volunteer whose cardiologist nick-
named her, “Wonder Woman” — Randi
embraces life.
“I love the Prescott area,” said Randi,
who moved with her husband to the
community in 1998. “The people are
friendly and it has four mild seasons.
When we first moved here, I worked
at Kachina Travel Agency on Cortez
Street. It was great working down-
town.”
In retirement, Randi continued an active lifestyle. She
took long walks and joined a bowling league. Thatʼs why
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June 2017
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she was surprised when a heart murmur
– first discovered when she was a child
– was linked to a 2011 diagnosis of heart
valve disease.
“As a young kid, no one seemed too con-
cerned about my heart murmur,” she said.
“Now, the doctors think itʼs a family thing.
My sister had a heart murmur and a heart
valve replacement, like me. My brother also
has had open heart surgery.”
Heart valve disease is a narrowing of the
aortic valve opening that restricts blood
flow. This makes the heart work harder to
pump blood into the aorta, the bodyʼs main
artery which supplies oxygenated blood to
the circulatory system. Heart valve disease
is most often tied to age and lifestyle. For
An avid bowler, Randi Suppes is able to continue
playing thanks to her 2013 heart valve replacement
surgery and single coronary artery bypass graft at The
James Family Heart Center at YRMC West.