A heart for fellow patients

Steve Wegrzyn, who died Tuesday, was touched by the plight of Cambodian children with heart problems. Tiny Socheat Nha, seen in this undated photo after her successful surgery, was one of the Hearts Without Boundaries success stories that inspired him.

By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer

Press Telegram, Aug. 18, 2011 

LONG BEACH - Steve Wegrzyn had a good heart. It just didn't work very well. 

Wegrzyn, who suffered the effects of juvenile diabetes throughout his life, died Tuesday from complications of a brain hemorrhage. He was 47. 

In 2009, Wegrzyn had heart surgery and in 2010 he received a new kidney and pancreas.

Maybe it was because of his own health difficulties that he was drawn to others with heart problems.

That's what led him to become involved with Hearts Without Boundaries, a local nonprofit that helps impoverished Cambodian children get heart treatment and surgery unavailable to them in their home country.

Peter Chhun, head of Hearts Without Boundaries, remembers Wegrzyn felt a special kinship to the children.

"By helping them, maybe in return they'll help me," Chhun remembers his friend saying.

Born in Indiana, Wegrzyn moved to the Long Beach area in 1983. In 1998, the lifelong "car guy" bought into Fiesta II Auto Sales on Pacific Coast Highway and was a common sight there with his Akita, Totei. He later became a regular at Sophy's Restaurant across the street.

There he would hang out with staff and interact with the different heart patients that came to visit the restaurant, which supports the nonprofit. He became aware of it when Davik Teng came to the United States. She would have her surgery not long before Wegrzyn had his operation. One patient he was particularly fond of was Socheat Nha, who had her heart operated on in 2010.

Despite his ongoing health issues, which required numerous hospitalizations in recent years, and his business struggles during the economic downturn, Wegrzyn was a consistent donor and supporter of Hearts Without Boundaries and attended its events whenever his health allowed.

"To see a person share like that, to me he was something really special," Chhun said.

"He was passionate about it," Wegrzyn's sister Karol Siwietz said of the nonprofit and its patients. "He never had children of his own but he loved kids. He would have been a good dad."

Siwietz and her family visited Wegrzyn recently and remarked at how healthy and happy he seemed.

"He thought he'd finally turned the corner (with his health)," Siwietz said. "He was in a really happy place."

Part of that happiness came from playing a role in helping the children he met at Sophy's.
Maybe the children with health ailments couldn't repair Wegrzyn's heart, but for a while, they helped to fill it.

Wegrzyn is survived by his mother, Anne Wegrzyn; sisters Karol Siwietz and Kathy Brown; brother, Walt Wegrzyn, four nephews and two nieces.

A memorial gathering will be held Saturday at Sophy's from 3 to 6 p.m.

The family has asked in lieu of flowers that donations be made in his memory to Hearts Without Boundaries, 744 Redondo Ave., Long Beach, CA., 90804 or online at http://heartswithout boundaries.org. 

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291