Salem Man Running 2021 Boston Marathon In His Niece's Honor

DANVERS, MA — Noah Koretz has the Christina VanderPlyum and her team at Boston Children's Hospital to thank for helping keep his niece alive as she awaited a heart transplant in the first months of her life.

Now that his niece is recovered and thriving in her Salem home as the family looks forward to her second birthday and her beginning nursery school, Koretz is getting ready to run the Boston Marathon to raise money for the Ventricular Assist Device Program that bridged the period between when her heart failed her as an infant and when she received a new one.

Koretz told Patch his niece was on a Berlin Heart for months as she awaited the transplant.

"Without the incredible care she received at Children's, including world-class practitioners and medical technology available in very few other places, she almost certainly would not have survived," he said on his fundraising page.

Koretz is running for the Miles For Miracles team with all funds raised going toward the VAD Program that VanderPlyum runs.

"This program is critical to ensuring that kids like (my niece) can survive to transplant," he said. "VAD Center research has contributed to significant and life-saving gains for patients, including with the use of the Berlin Heart specifically.

"Dr. VanderPlyum continuously challenges the status quo of care, and fiercely advocates for her patients. Once a patient enters into her world, she is committed to ensuring that this patient has an amazing quality of life."

Koretz ran a "virtual" Marathon last year along a course he set up on the North Shore. His sister, Janna, ran the last two miles of the course with him.

After raising $50,000 last year he is hoping to raise another $50,000 for this year's race on Oct. 11.

You can donate to support Koretz and the Boston Children's program here.

Are you running this year's Boston Marathon? Patch wants to why and how it went after the race. Email scott.souza@patch.com and tell us your story.

More Patch Coverage: Salem Runners In The 2021 Boston Marathon