Preserving life, preserving history

Anna Rado, 88, does not let the atrocities of the Holocaust and her memories of Auschwitz prevent her from educating the public of these horrific actions. Having survived one of history’s most devastating acts of events, Anna has made it her mission to inform the community, specifically children, that God did not bring the Holocaust upon the nearly six million European Jews in the 1940s, rather it was hatred from people.

“You know there's some children, they have never even heard what Auschwitz was. And right now we are practically the last generation who were in the Holocaust who are still alive,” commented Anna. “I get very much satisfaction that I can tell the children my story because I want for them to not happen what happened to me.”

At just 13 years old on March 10, 1944, Anna and her family, Hungarian natives, were piled into animal freight trains and taken away from their hometown of Rajka, Hungary.

“There were over ninety people - babies, young and old - piled into these trains,” Anna commented. “They opened the doors and the town we arrived in was called Auschwitz.”

The same evening of her petrifying arrival, Anna’s parents were separated from her and taken to gas chambers — she never saw them again. Anna spent just over five months in Auschwitz, having lost 75 of her close relatives to tragic deaths. Anna recalls of the 300 Jewish people in her hometown to have been taken to these camps, only 15 survived — her siblings among them.

Anna was liberated by Russian troops when she was 14 years old. Anna and her family, along with her brother and his family, came to live in San Antonio, Texas in 1957 where they were reunited with their sister Suzanne.

It took time before Anna was able to talk about her nightmare experiences and relive the vivid memories of the Holocaust; however, overtime she recognized that people were very interested in her story and were eager to learn more. Anna since made it her mission to educate people all over Texas in hopes that what happened to her not be repeated.

Within the last several months Anna’s health began to decline, identifying in herself fatigue, shortness of breath, weakness, and an irregular heartbeat. “I don’t feel like my life is finished. I have so much still to do,” she recalls. Anna sought medical attention at Methodist Hospital where she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition resulting in blood to move through the heart and body at a slower rate causing pressure in the heart to increase.

“A lot of people Anna’s age tend to put this off as ‘I’m just getting older’, but really there is a mechanical problem that's going on that can be fixed,” commented Jorge Alvarez, Interventional Cardiologist with the Methodist Hospital.

Anna had a transcatheter aortic valve replacement surgery, known as TAVR. The TAVR procedure allows implantation of a prosthetic heart valve within the diseased native aortic valve without the need for open heart surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass. This treatment offers a less-invasive option to elderly patients considered at high surgical risk

“There are a lot of people that need to have this done but are just too high risk for a big open heart procedure where they open the sternum, expose the heart, and then take out the old valve and put in the new valve,” said Alvarez. “With the TAVR procedure, we use catheters to engage the valve from an access point and then replace it with a bio prosthetic valve.”

Anna’s surgery went well and she identified immediate relief after awakening from anesthesia.

After her procedure her community really rallied behind her and were able to express their gratitude with ‘get well’ letters, cards, and posters. Some even baked traditional Jewish baked goods, such as Challah bread.

“We operate on amazing people here at Methodist hospital, but it's not every day that you meet someone like Anna, a true survivor and wonderful person who had the unfortunate experience of going through The Holocaust,” commented Alvarez. “It makes us all within the team feel very special that we were able to extend her life so she can continue on her mission.”