DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff photographer
Laura Grillo takes a break during Sexy Singles photo shoot.
- Meet Laura and other Sexy Singles at tonight's Sexy Single Mingle
- Sexy Singles blog: Get a peek at this year's contest
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- Racism underlies rage at Obama presidency
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- Ronnie Polaneczky: Pen to paper: Will Madoff make him rich?
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- ACORN shows 'pimp' and 'pro' the door here
- Obama in Philly, fundraising for Sen. Arlen Specter
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Jenice Armstrong: Laura Grillo: A great butt, but she has a bad ticker
LAURA "The Butt" Grillo has a great backside, but a bad heart.
Yeah, you read that right.
The former Playboy model, who was given her bootylicious nickname by the hosts of WMMR's "Preston & Steve Show," needs major heart surgery because an extra pathway in her heart causes irregular rhythms, putting her at risk for blood clots and strokes.
She also needs your help.
Unfortunately for Grillo, she's in the same position as 45 million other Americans who lack health insurance. She has a condition that medicine can cure. She just can't afford it.
President Obama has made health-care reform a leading issue for his administration, pointing out yesterday, "The status quo on health care is not an option for the United States of America. It is threatening the financial stability of our families, our businesses, and government itself."
The Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday narrowly approved its version of health-care reform; a House committee did the same on Tuesday. Finally, the issue is once again on the nation's front burner and not a minute too soon, considering how many people are losing jobs and the health benefits that come with them.
Grillo, a single mother with a 7-year-old daughter, can't afford to sit back on that famous booty of hers to see what Washington decides. She learned in April that she needs to undergo a cardiac ablation, in which the heart is shocked into an irregular rhythm and the damaged portion burned to help repair a structural abnormality.
Meanwhile, she's on medication that controls the symptoms - for now. Unfortunately, her condition, supraventri-cular tachycardia, tends to worsen over time. So, the sooner she gets treated, the better.
Grillo's surgery will cost $56,000, not including pre- and post-op care. She'll spend a week in the hospital and up to three weeks at home recuperating.
When you're uninsured, you have to pay for care up-front, except in the most dire circumstances.
"They've upped my medication twice, and it's still happening," Grillo said of her racing heart, which doctors treat with beta blockers. "I think it's terrible that you have people in my position who have to [pay] out of pocket for expenses. I couldn't believe the prices. One test was $900. What costs $900?"
The last couple of months have been particularly challenging for Grillo, who also has been featured in FHM, Esquire and Smooth magazines. On her own since age 15, she's used to doing for herself - not asking total strangers for help.
"I feel so sick in my stomach. I'm the one who's always leading anything. I've done appearances for a bunch of different charities," she told me yesterday. "I'm uncomfortable that I have to accept help from other people."
But what would this world be if we didn't extend a hand to those in trouble? That's why, even though we don't usually reveal who the Sexy Singles will be until the issues hit newsstands (July 27-30), we are making an exception to reveal Grillo as one of this year's winners.
We hope that divulging the news early will help Grillo raise at least the $20,000 down payment she needs for her surgery.
Tonight, Grillo will be serving as a celebrity bartender during the Sexy Singles Mingle at McFadden's Restaurant & Saloon at Citizens Bank Park, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Grillo's "Have a Heart" fundraiser at
McFadden's starts immediately afterward.
Something positive that has come out of all her health woes is that Grillo has a renewed sense of what she wants her lifework to be. "I will make it my life's mission to give back," she said.
Instead of focusing on modeling jobs, Grillo, who graduated with honors from Great Valley High School in Malvern, has decided to devote herself to doing something to help other Americans unable to afford adequate medical care.
"I always knew I'd start a charity one day," Grillo has said. "I just didn't know I'd be the first recipient." *
Send e-mail to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: http://go.philly.com/heyjen.
