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Jude Maboné, 16, often went to bed wondering whether she would wake up the next morning. She recently had her first After suffering a heart attack and five more by the time she was 18, she created a bucket list that included entering a beauty pageant (she told CNN she was inspired by the film “Congeniality.”)
While her peers were enjoying their high school years, Mabone was hospitalized every other week. She was later diagnosed with heart disease, which Mabone seemed unlikely to have—she had no family history of it, ate well, managed stress well, and exercised. In fact, all of her heart attacks had occurred while she was running. Ashamed of a disease that most people attribute to aging and unhealthy lifestyle habits, Mabone isolated herself, never telling her friends or teachers about her condition.
But Mabone is now 28 and the 2023 winner of the Miss District of Columbia pageant, as well as a contestant in this year’s Miss America pageant (held Jan. 14 and Jan. 2). She said that in 80 years, a national titleholder for Miss District of Columbia hasn’t been chosen.
“It’s the most widespread disease in the United States and it’s also the most deadly disease,” Mabone said, “which is why a big part of why I wanted to run for Miss America was to try and destigmatize this disease.”
She has used her title to expand her advocacy efforts for proactive heart health and cardiac emergency preparedness, working closely with the American Heart Association and other organizations. It helps raise preventative heart health awareness, provide testing to communities, and implement plans in schools to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs), which, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, are “portable, life-saving devices designed to treat someone who has sudden cardiac arrest” by delivering an electric shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm.
“Very few people survive one heart attack, and I’ve survived six,” Mabone said, “so I felt there was a purpose and a responsibility to help others do better than I did.”
Mabone was born in Southern California in 1995 and was one of four children raised by a single mother who served in the Navy.
“My mom had a rule that we followed from the time we were in fifth grade until we graduated from high school: To live in my mom’s house, you had to play a sport, play an instrument, learn a second language, be in a club, have a leadership role and take voice lessons,” she said. (Her pageant talent was Italian opera.)
Moshe Zusman/Headshot DC
Mabone took the headshots for the Miss America pageant.
Mabonne competed in track and field and long distance running, and his heart problems became evident when, on 11 July 2012, during the latter part of a six-mile run, he began experiencing chest pains which progressed to profuse sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea and pain in his left shoulder.
Mabone had learned in health classes that these were warning signs of a heart attack, but given her age and healthy lifestyle, she didn’t think it was likely. But she knew she needed help. So she ended up going to hospital herself.
“Looking back now, I would have stayed there … and had someone run somewhere nearby to call 911,” she said. “Calling 911 is always the first thing to do when someone is experiencing symptoms, and I’m grateful I was equipped with that information and in a position to share with others how to respond to a cardiac emergency.”
But despite Mabone suffering a heart attack over the next two years, all tests she underwent on her heart health came back completely normal. Several experts said she was fine and the attack was a coincidence, but her doctor recommended she seek another opinion.
Potential causes of her symptoms include: “The doctor who diagnosed me said he thought this type of condition was hormonal or environmental, but couldn’t pinpoint the cause because it wasn’t genetic,” Mabone said. “It may get better as I grow, but it may not. It may get worse. The jury is still out.”
Raising awareness of cases of cardiovascular disease where there is not enough information to identify the cause, such as Mabone’s own, is a key part of her platform, along with lobbying for increased funding for related medical research. “Heart disease kills more people than cancer.” In the United States, she explained, “the percentage of funding[from medical research organizations]is very small.”
Of the National Institutes of Health’s $49.2 billion in funding for 2023, the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has been allocated $4 billion, just over 8% of the funding, compared with about 13% and 15% allocated to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Cancer Institute, respectively.
“While each NIH institute and center has an area of focus, NIH support of research in a particular disease area is not limited to a single institute or center,” an NIH spokesperson said in an email. “Separate diseases are often related, and a better understanding of one disease can reveal information about another. For example, diabetes is a known cause of heart disease, but a better understanding of diabetes may provide insight into the incidence of related heart disease.”
Mabone is “not necessarily who people think of when they think of beauty pageants,” she said, because she didn’t grow up in them. But by 2021, she had run for Miss District of Columbia seven times. At that point, she was 26 years old and When she was removed from the Miss America pageant due to age restrictions, she lamented the loss of her dream. But last year, the pageant began under new leadership, and since then, Additionally, the organization announced a partnership with the American Heart Association for national charity outreach and raised the age limit for contestants to 28.
Then, in January 2023, the nation became interested in cardiovascular disease in young people when then-24-year-old NFL player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest after being struck in the chest while being tackled during a game.
“I thought, ‘All these things line up. Let’s humble ourselves, let’s swallow our pride and give it another go,'” Mabone said. “Because I felt like the issues I’d been talking about for 10 years were finally being taken seriously.”
Instead of letting her condition control her, Mabone is taking treatments — beta blockers help slow her activity and control her blood pressure and heart rate — and putting in the work necessary to lead a dynamic life and educate others. “My body and my heart are in better shape than they were before my heart attack,” Mabone says. “Because you have to work so hard to overcome it.”
She wants other children to have the same chance.
Courtesy of Jude Mabonne
Mabone will be addressing the House of Representatives at the 2023 National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s 75th anniversary parliamentary reception.
That’s why she advocates for automated external defibrillators in schools and training staff to use them. (Maboné has also sponsored a “cardiac emergency response plan” bill that will soon be debated by the Washington DC City Council.)
According to the FDA, using an AED within minutes of a cardiac arrest, along with CPR — another activity Mabone does — can save a life. “My problem is that this is not federally mandated,” Mabone said.
“D’Amar Hamlin’s life was saved, (NBA player) Bronny James’ life was saved because somebody knew it was their job to call 911,” Mabone told CNN. “Somebody knew it was their job to start chest compressions. Somebody else got the AED.”
Mabone said she is excited to be taking part in the Miss America pageant and “represent” the more than 121.5 million Americans living with cardiovascular disease.
“As Miss DC, I’ve been able to touch thousands of people in DC and even outside of DC,” Mabone said. “As Miss America, those thousands turn into millions. I feel like there’s an opportunity here to really concretely change the way this country looks at this disease, which I don’t think I would necessarily have had without the platform of Miss America.”
“Partnering with the American Heart Association will create many opportunities to leverage their work and my work to make a tangible difference,” she added, adding that she plans to host larger CPR trainings and cardiac screenings to help people be proactive about their heart health.
Mabonne urges people to take it seriously and seek medical attention if they experience symptoms of a heart attack, such as chest pain, arm or shoulder pain or shortness of breath. “Don’t let your doctor treat you lightly; there are a lot of great doctors out there,” he says, adding, “But you need to be your own biggest advocate.”
Mabone also stressed the importance of stress management, even while taking care of your diet, sleep and health, and suggested learning Hands-Only CPR, the now recommended treatment, as many lives are injured or lost due to poor bystander CPR.
Mabone said Miss America represents many different things to different people: nostalgia, tradition, celebrity and beauty.
“To me, a Miss America is someone who has a goal and who has the drive and passion to make America better in some way,” she said. “To me, that’s about heart health, and I think that’s exactly what we need right now.”
