NASCAR driver Ross Chastain visits 6-year-old transplant recipient
NASCAR driver Ross Chastain visited AdventHealth Redmond’s campus on Redmond Road on Friday morning to meet with community members and their frontline staff as well as surprising a 6-year-old boy, Thiago Cruz, who was recently the recipient of a double liver transplant.
During a photo with Chastain, Cruz was asked to stick his finger in the air to let people know he was No. 1 for surviving a transplant. Instead he smiled and curled his arm up while making a muscle. He then lifted up his shirt to show the scars across his tiny stomach and said “this is strength” to a suddenly silent audience.
Chastain surprised Cruz with putting the boy’s name on his car as well as inviting the boy and his family to be his guest at Sunday’s NASCAR race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“I’m happy to use my platform to shine a bright light on healthcare and nurses,” Chastain said.
The driver was met on stage by AdventHealth Redmond’s newly installed Chief Executive Isaac Sendros, who recently moved to Rome from Colorado.
Sendros spoke about his excitement in moving to Rome and working with his team at AdventHealth Redmond which has been named a top teaching hospital by Fortune magazine and one of the top heart hospitals for the third year in a row.
Chastain said having a family member who works in healthcare gave him a whole different perspective and a peek behind the curtain.
“My mother was in adult education for most of her career, “Chastain said. “But then she really felt she wanted to help people, so she went back to school to become a nurse.”
Chastain recently became famous for his “Hail Melon” maneuver during an October NASCAR race in Martinsville, Virginia, when he slid along the outside wall on the final curve, overtaking five cars and qualifying for the championship.
NASCAR decided the move was legal, and allowed Chastain the points, before quickly moving to make the move illegal and subject to a time penalty.
He also spoke about some of the rigors of being a NASCAR driver, and the toll it takes on your body.
“It takes a lot of preparation to be as close to 100%, physically and mentally, after three hours and 500 laps in the driver’s seat.”