What more can I say? This queer middle grade took my heart on an emotional roller coaster. Of the best variety. Find The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.
Introduction: Nearly one-quarter of patients discharged from the hospital with heart failure (HF) are readmitted within 30 days, placing a significant burden on patients, families and health systems. The objective of the 'Using Mobile Integrated Health and Telehealth to support transitions of care among patients with Heart failure' (MIGHTy-Heart) study is to compare the effectiveness of two postdischarge interventions on healthcare utilisation, patient-reported outcomes and healthcare quality among patients with HF.
The research team is enrolling patients with heart failure from two health systems in New York City. The team is assigning patients by chance to receive one of two types of care after hospital discharge. In the first type, patients receive a phone call from a care transitions coordinator two to three days after discharge. The coordinator checks on patients, answers their questions, and connects them to clinical and social services.
Secondary: preventable emergency department visits, unplanned hospital readmissions, days at home after a hospitalization, symptoms and functioning, patient self-care, attendance at follow-up appointments, whether patient was prescribed heart failure medicines, functional status
A MIGHTY HEART is one of those fact-based films where the audience is fully aware of the inevitable, grim climax; no matter how calm the early conversations are between married journalists Mariane (Angelina Jolie) and Daniel (Dan Futterman) Pearl, you know the bloody, heartbreaking end is near. Director Michael Winterbottom doesn't focus solely on Mariane, as a more sentimental director might have; rather, he closely depicts everyone intimately involved in the race to find Pearl -- from Danny's Wall Street Journal editor and colleagues to an American consulate official (Will Patton) to dogged Pakistani detectives led by "Captain" (Indian star Irfan Khan, a master of subtlety). As Captain and his crews scour the overcrowded streets of Karachi for clues (suspects) and Mariane and the WSJ reporters use a white board to connect the various players in the kidnapping, the tension is alleviated with flashbacks to Danny's last day as a free citizen and his life with Mariane. The brief scenes of the Pearls on their wedding day, dancing on vacation, and talking in bed are the heart of the film; they show what Danny's killers have destroyed. When the terrorists' horrifying photos of a bound Danny arrive accompanied by published accusations that Pearl is a CIA agent -- or worse, a Mossad operative -- the audience is again reminded that there is sadly only one outcome, no matter how close Captain and the FBI get to catching the kidnappers. Of course, that final, grisly beheading video is never re-created. It doesn't need to be, because by that point in the film, we've already played some version of it over and over again in our minds.
Step No. 1: Do "awesome amazing things" her cardiomyopathy kept her from doing. Step No. 2: "Find a new best friend" to replace Margot, who betrayed her trust. Step No. 3: "Find a boy" to kiss, "because kisses." Sunny achieves the first two steps almost simultaneously: She goes swimming in the ocean for the first time since her diagnosis and she meets blue-haired Quinn Ríos Rivera, and the two agree to be best friends. The third proves to be difficult, because Sunny finds she doesn't want to kiss a boy. She wants to kiss Quinn. Sunny's struggles are numerous but well-balanced and never overwhelm readers. The 12-year-old's mother, Lena, who gave Sunny to her best friend, Kate, to raise eight years ago, is ready to be part of Sunny's life. Sunny isn't sure she wants to know Lena, a recovering alcoholic. She's also uncertain as to which feelings are hers and which ones belong to her unknown heart donor, but her thoughtful, present-tense voice as she parses these feelings is all hers. Quinn is Puerto Rican; Kate's boyfriend is black; and Lena's husband is South Asian. Assume whiteness for everyone else.
The Mighty Heart invites you to learn from change-makers and heart experts in service of some of the most challenging conflicts around the world. They will help you become a change-maker yourself by transforming discord that may be internal, at family, organisation or even at national level.
Everybody can cultivate their capacity to listen, manage difficult conversations and beat the confusion and depression of the pandemic by developing right brain intelligence, taming their inner critic, and discovering the initiatives latent in the heart.
We watch not because we are entertained. For that matter, the movie has a plot that holds not a single surprise and an ending that is a foregone conclusion to its audience. It is rather a film that asks us to relive a heartbreaking event in order to better comprehend its meaning. It is, as the producers repeatedly made clear in interviews, a documentary with a message. The film demands that we agonize with Mariane in order to find a way to help us understand how to cope with the barbaric butchery of a loving husband and soon-to-be father.
Daniel Pearl needs to be remembered as a victim of an ideology that is all too much still with us, an ideology that does not seek dialogue but rather the destruction of its enemies. Michael Winterbottom needs to be reminded of the classic story of two social workers who suddenly come upon a mugger severely beating a man he is in the midst of robbing. They watch the criminal mercilessly pound his victim to a pulp. Their hearts filled with compassion, they point to the mugger and mutually agree that in all certainty he really needs their help.
A Mighty Heart would do well to direct its compassion to where it is most needed. Fanatical Muslims still trumpet their vision of a world free of all those who share Jewish identity, as well as all infidels who persist in choosing to maintain their own "mistaken" faiths. Because of them, a "mighty heart" without the benefit of a realistic mind may well lead to the world falling victim to the same tragic fate that befell Daniel Pearl.
The characters were the biggest win for me with this story. Everyone was so developed and played a key role to the story. There were so many heartfelt moments that really made me feel for the characters.
At last, there's "the scene," the most unbearable moment in the entire picture, the most excoriating too. It happens as the widow realizes she's a widow, and it hurts to think of, let alone to watch the thing unfold. Jolie's Mariane swallows down her sobs, her tears threatening to fall at last. We see that mask start to crumble, tremors, and popped veins galore. And then, she exits the scene, as she always does, running away from the camera at this most delicate point. Our gaze still follows her, through it all, chasing after the bereaved woman, thirsty for the fresh blood of grief. When alone, she collapses, screams, exorcising some mighty demons. Some might call the cry an example of catharsis, but that doesn't do it justice. It's too shattered to be cathartic.
When Sunny St. James receives a new heart, she decides to set off on a New Life Plan: 1) do awesome amazing things she could never do before; 2) find a new best friend; and 3) kiss a boy for the first time. Her New Life Plan seems to be racing forward, but when she meets her new best friend Quinn, Sunny questions whether she really wants to kiss a boy at all. With the reemergence of her mother, Sunny begins a journey to becoming the new Sunny St. James
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