In fact, he was in such great shape that he always tried to break the distance record when he took the treadmill stress test for his annual physical, as he did in May 2000.

Less than a year earlier, Ron had passed a similar test with flying colors for an insurance physical. So, he was surprised when he was asked to stop running, and then given an echocardiogram.

Carl E. Orringer, MD, Director of Preventive Cardiology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, recommended catheterization. Dr. Orringer is the physician and cardiologist for Ron, his wife Nancy, their daughter, Jill, and her husband, Steve McLaughlin, and their son, Ron, Jr., and his wife, Lydia.

Ron was even more surprised when the cardiologist who performed the catheterization informed him and Nancy that his arteries were more than 70 percent blocked and he would require a quadruple bypass.

“I thought he was talking to the wrong wife,” Nancy recalled. “Ron had exercised like a champion,and he had done everything right.”

If you want to see Ron and Nancy turn into a force of nature, though, tell them they can’t do something. Ron keeps a framed fortune cookie adage on his desk that serves as their family motto: “Life’s great achievement is doing something people say you can’t.”

After all, this is a family whose inherent tenacity and drive enabled them to acquire a nearly defunct pharmacy with 35 employees in 1990, and turn it into Edgepark Medical Supplies, the leading mail-order provider of medical supplies in the U.S., with 25,000+ products and a staff of more than 800 people.
Thus, six weeks after his surgery, Ron was running and lifting weights and back to his normal routine.

Shortly afterward, Nancy had some medical tests in Ocean Reef, Fla., where they spend their winters, including a cardiac CT imaging for coronary artery calcium scoring. Upon her return to Cleveland, Dr. Orringer examined her results and informed her about his extended study of heartdisease prevention programs and his innovative, assiduous promotion of this, at the time, fairly new and highly successful
diagnostic tool. He believed it could save many lives of unsuspecting patients with heart disease such as
her husband. 

Because of the commitment of UH leadership and the Department of Radiology to make this $400-$500 test an affordable $99 by absorbing the additional costs, the Harringtons wanted to support Dr. Orringer’s EDUCATE (Early Detection Using Calcium Scoring for Treatment and Elimination of Coronary Heart Disease) program. “If Ron had had this test 35 years ago, he probably would never have needed quadruple bypass surgery,” Nancy said. “And Tim Russert might be alive today.”

After meeting Daniel I. Simon, MD, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, the family decided to donate $22.6 million, one of the largest gifts in the hospital’s 143-year history. The gift will endow the Harrington-McLaughlin Chair in Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine in honor of Dr. Orringer and support and advance the work of Dr. Simon’s team at the Harrington-
McLaughlin Heart & Vascular Institute, named in honor of the family.

“We’re interested in catching heart disease on the front end,” said Ron, whose family has a long history of generous philanthropy. “We want to help people so that they don’t have to go through what our family did.”
“It has been an exhilarating experience learning about this family’s true commitment to community service,” said Dr. Simon. “The Institute has found passionate partners in the Harringtons and McLaughlins for our ultimate goal of building a Heart & Vascular Institute that will rise even further as a national center of excellence.”