After being treated at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital for a heart condition, a Los Gatos teenager showed he can keep a steady beat by performing classic rock songs on piano to raise money for research to find a cure for congenital heart defects.
Rishi Radhakrishna, 17, played arrangements of 10 classic rock anthems from Billy Joel to Led Zeppelin on Aug. 30 as a fundraiser for Dr. Casey Gifford’s lab at Stanford University’s Basic Science and Engineering program, where he is an intern focusing on the genetic causes behind congenital heart disorders.
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Radhakrishna, a senior at The Harker School in San Jose, was born with pulmonary stenosis, a congenital heart defect in which the pulmonary valve between the heart and lungs is abnormally thickened, increasing pressure within the heart’s right ventricle and making it harder for blood to flow from the heart to the lungs. He is among the almost 1% of newborns who are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect every year .
“If I was born even 40-50 years earlier, the research and innovation that exists today wouldn’t have been available, necessitating a more elaborate and complex surgery to treat my condition,” Radhakrishna wrote on his fundraiser webpage, which is tied to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. “Continuous innovation is crucial for newer and better cures. My experiences at the hospital were formative in my relationship with science and medicine, and have driven me towards aspiring to make advancements in these fields myself.”
He added that the surgical procedure he underwent at Lucile Packard “largely eliminated major risks associated with my condition,” and that without this treatment, his condition would have led to serious health issues and an impaired lifestyle, like decreased cardiac efficiency and an increased likelihood of heart disease.
Almost two weeks after his at-home piano concert, which also featured Stanford University professors giving brief inspirational speeches between songs, Radhakrishna was almost halfway to his $100,000 fundraising goal.
“This is more than just a fundraiser,” Radhakrishna’s father Preeti Sanketh wrote in an email. “It’s…about how music and science can unite to inspire hope and drive real impact for children’s health.”
Radhakrishna’s fundraising webpage can be found at https://my.supportlpch.org/fundraiser/6394219.