A family saga. A medical mystery. A fight to save lives.
Dear Friends and Valued Readers,
I’m excited to share Before the Last Heartbeat, a long-overdue true story written with the intimacy of a novel. It blends humor, tension, heartbreak, and a real-life medical mystery.
You’ll step into the world of a family who loved deeply—an ordinary family forced into an extraordinary fight for answers and survival. To understand what came next, you need to know who we were before everything changed: what made us laugh, what held us together, and how we loved before the heartbreak, before the unimaginable, before our world turned upside down.
A true story of love, loss and resilience by Nancy Toran Duitch
with Gloria J. Morrison
Nancy Toran Duitch is a visionary entrepreneur and philanthropist whose leadership has shaped some of the most recognizable consumer brands of the last three decades. A trailblazer in wellness, beauty, and lifestyle innovation, she has built, scaled, and successfully exited multiple companies through groundbreaking branding, e-commerce, and multi-channel marketing strategies.
Her career reflects not only creative vision and strategic foresight but also a profound sense of purpose.
In 1991, following the sudden deaths of her siblings, Nancy and her mother co-founded the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS) Foundation, later joined by the Cardiac & Arrhythmia Research & Education (CARE) Foundation.
The Foundations mission is to save the lives and support children, adults, and families affected by genetic heart conditions that predispose them to sudden death due to arrhythmias.
• Increase awareness of the foundation and the warning signs that may identify the child or adult at risk for sudden cardiac death
• Enhance patient and family support by assisting the families to make informed medical decisions and to live and thrive despite the challenges of these conditions.
• Expand education to health and medical professionals as well as to facilitate early recognition and accurate diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm abnormalities.
• Increase advocacy for research, screening, diagnosis and medical treatments.
“Before the Last Heartbeat is an emotional, riveting family saga rooted in truth — tracing love, loss and a medical mystery that changed everything. The way Nancy shares her brother’s story, her mother’s fight and the heart-ache behind it all is deeply moving. A must-read for anyone touched by grief or the quest for answers.”