This series spotlights Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic colleagues who are participating in the American Heart Association’s Philadelphia Heart Walk on Nov. 1.
On the evening before Thanksgiving in 2010, Lisa Tranausky, quality specialist for Quality Health Alliance at Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic, was at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. It was her fifth consecutive day spent waiting for doctors to figure out what was going on with her son. Luckily, there was one beacon of light throughout all the stress—her big sister, Ruthann Markley.
“I needed some real advice, so I called my best friend, my second mom, who happened to be my sister. We have a huge gap between us. She is about 15 years older than me,” says Tranausky. “We spoke on the phone for over an hour that night. She spoke about bringing Thanksgiving dinner to the hospital for me. Little did I know, when our conversation ended at about 9 p.m. that night, it would be the last time I would hear her voice.”
Markley passed away at the age of 53 on Nov. 25, 2010, due to a heart attack in her sleep. It was a devastating loss for the entire family, with Tranausky’s mother—who was battling cancer at the time—forced to say “goodbye” to her daughter after previously burying three of her brothers, all of whom had massive heart attacks in their sleep in their early 50s.
On the day that Markley passed away, the family discovered prescriptions for cardiac blood work and a cardiac test on her dresser.
“We spoke on the phone for over an hour that night. She spoke about bringing Thanksgiving dinner to the hospital for me. Little did I know, when our conversation ended at about 9 p.m. that night, it would be the last time I would hear her voice.” – Lisa Tranausky
“My sister lived in a neighborhood that was not the wealthiest. She was putting off getting the tests completed until she had enough money for her co-pays. She did not share with anybody in the family her financial stress or the tests she needed to get done,” says Tranausky. “This is the reason why many do not get regular blood work or regular check-ups.”
Though Tranausky has participated in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk in the past, walking on the “Do It for Dan” team in support of a Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic colleague, 2025 marks the first year that she is being vocal about her sister’s story in the hopes that it can help somebody else.
“My support to this walk is to bring awareness to individuals who think it can’t happen to them, they feel too busy or they did not explain their financial situation to their doctors and families out of embarrassment,” says Tranausky. “Money should never prevent someone from seeing a doctor and getting tests done.”
Tranausky’s participation in the Heart Walk is making a deep impact on her healing process. She realizes that, instead of turning inward, she can turn her grief into positive action.
“Use your sadness to help others,” she says. “This is showing me that my sister is not gone. She will always be within me helping me help others.”
Now, Tranausky can look back on memories of her sister with fondness, from trick-or-treating and seeing Santa with Markley and her three daughters (who were more like sisters than nieces) to Markley taking her to get her ears pierced.
“And from the last day of school until the last week of summer, I was at her house,” says Tranausky. “Every Friday night after her kids went to bed, we would hang out in her living room and I would brush her long, red hair while we watched the show Dallas.”