{"id":3486,"date":"2023-02-08T13:50:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3486"},"modified":"2023-02-08T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T18:50:33","slug":"remembering-nikky-fiorello-the-rhythms-of-an-unforgettable-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3486","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Nikky Fiorello: The Rhythms of an Unforgettable Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Brilliant dancers feel the rhythm in their bodies. When life-long dancer Nikky Fiorello danced, she felt the rhythm. Today, three years after the 30-year-old\u2019s sudden death from cardiac arrest, her mother Kate Fiorello describes some of the qualities that make Nikky forever loved and unforgettable to so many people. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very passionate, with joy and anger! She was quick-witted and could spot-on impersonate. She had a great singing voice, but really only used it comedically. I thought she would have been ideal on Saturday Night Live. When she was little, she would jump around and dance whenever music was on, <\/span><\/span>particularly when her dad was playing guitar or banging it out on the piano. Most fun for me was watching her and her sister Danielle dance it up at weddings, the DJs always loved them.<\/span><\/span><\/span> Her friends called her NikkyBoots because her eyes were as wide as the fearless hero from Puss in Boots.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One morning while a senior at SUNY Albany, a friend couldn\u2019t wake her up, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. \u201cBy the time the EMTs had arrived, Nikky was awake,\u201d Kate said. \u201cWhen we got to the hospital she said that it was \u2018crazy that I\u2019m in the hospital, I am fine.\u2019 The doctor said she had some type of seizure but could do no testing as it was the weekend. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Life went on. After college, Nikky earned her MBA at Union Graduate College and moved to NYC. Working in compliance she started with FINRA, then Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, climbing the corporate ladder, often questioning her career path even with her success. One morning, Nikky called Kate. \u201cMom, I just woke up on the bathroom floor. I must have passed out on the way to the shower.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Still, life went on. At 30, she was an assistant vice president at BNP Paribas. By then she had her own Manhattan apartment, her circle of friends and loved ones had grown. She dreamed of starting a family. She had her health, or so it seemed. She ate right, exercised, even took Salsa lessons. After an evening kickboxing class on January 6, 2020, she went home, made lunch for the next day, talked to her cousin Clare and went to bed. The next day she was found dead on the bedroom floor. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was later determined that she died from congenital LongQT Syndrome (LQTS) 3, a condition where the heart\u2019s electrical impulse was delayed and her heart did not beat, causing sudden death. The median age of death for those who have LQTS is 32. \u201cPeople with LQTS may be at a greater risk when they exercise (LQT1), when they have an adrenaline rush (LQT2), or as in Nikky\u2019s case, when they are asleep (LQT3)\u201d said Kate. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile on January 7th, 9 a.m. rolled around at BNP Paribas, and Nikky hadn\u2019t shown up at work. Her coworkers immediately started texting her and reaching out to their boss. By 9:30, now alarmed, they contacted anyone who might know where she was. By 10:30, Dominic heard from Nikky\u2019s friend that she hadn\u2019t shown up for work. Nikky\u2019s siblings Anthony and Danielle were already aware because of their mutual friends. \u201cWe all had different things going through our heads. My son thought someone may have harmed her. Danielle, knew something was off, as Nikky would always respond to check-ins.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Several friends went to Nikky\u2019s apartment, but the superintendent refused to open the door until the police arrived. By 11:30 a.m. the NYPD found Nikky on her bedroom floor, no one was allowed in. Dominic was on the phone with them begging for answers. \u201cPlease, I\u2019m her father. Can you just tell me if she is alive?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m sorry. She\u2019s not.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI kept walking around saying \u2018this can\u2019t be, this can\u2019t be\u2019 but I immediately understood that life would never be the same. I believe she had a peaceful death, that she just stood up and collapsed. Having read so many books on the afterlife I truly hope that she was just pulled into this great peace and light that she couldn\u2019t resist. And that\u2019s how I get through it.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By 1 p.m., January 7, 2020, Nikky\u2019s parents were on Interstate 81 driving the familiar drive to Manhattan, this time unable to think straight. They needed gas, got off at the Cortland exit, went to Starbucks for caffeine, got back on the highway and realized they forgot to get gas. The drive was arrhythmic, both like and unlike the past. One beat of Nikky\u2019s life was a sequence of seizures, syncope, and sudden death, what Kate calls \u201ca textbook definition\u201d of LQTS. The other, a perfectly repeated pattern of pulses inscribed in the heart of Nikky\u2019s father. \u201cOne of my husband’s fondest memories was driving back from NYC with Nikky, singing to the Beatles and Elvis Costello together for the entire drive.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Early morning on Jan. 8<\/span><\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/span>, they met with Nikky\u2019s friends, and later the coroner, who struggled to find the cause of death until a genetic test gave them answers pointing to a condition the family hadn\u2019t heard of. \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span>Nikky had a variant in the SCN5A gene, which controls the sodium channels to the heart,\u201d Kate said. \u201cI believe it was a perfect storm, she had this variant, was slightly dehydrated from the kickboxing class the night before, and had been prescribed one of the many medicines with a warning statement \u2018caution with prolonged QT.\u2019 Together they caused a long QT interval and her heart didn\u2019t beat.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Just three months before COVID, they were able to hold a funeral for Nikky in Cicero, where friends and family expressed love and reached out. \u201cMaybe life isn\u2019t supposed to be easy,\u201d she said, later adding, <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cI\u2019m grateful we had her for 30 years, the love never dies. When Nikky is remembered, when her friends reach out to us, it means so much.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

CMC Dance Company, where Nikky danced growing up in Cicero, now has an annual Memorial Scholarship that covers the one-week summer Dance Intensive program for the awarded dancer. At their 25<\/span><\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span><\/sup><\/span> anniversary banquet, CMC did a beautiful video tribute to Nikky and the first scholarship was presented.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The family is now focused on raising awareness about LQTS. Last April, they participated in the Syracuse HeartWalk,<\/span><\/span> raising over $40,000 for the American Heart Association. They hope to achieve similar goals for this year\u2019s walk on April 16, 2023. To learn more about Nikky\u2019s story and LQTS, please search the 2023 Syracuse HeartWalk, We Love NikkyBoots Team under The Bonadio Group.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Hanzalik Brilliant dancers feel the rhythm in their bodies. When life-long dancer Nikky Fiorello danced, she felt the rhythm. Today, three years after the 30-year-old\u2019s sudden death from cardiac arrest, her mother Kate Fiorello describes some of the qualities that make Nikky forever loved and unforgettable to so many people. \u201cShe was very…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[531,1369,1368],"class_list":["post-3486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-feature","tag-american-heart-association","tag-lqts","tag-nikky-fiorello"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Nik-at-restaurant.jpeg?fit=750%2C1334&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3822,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3822","url_meta":{"origin":3486,"position":0},"title":"Danielle Fiorello advocates in memory of her sister","author":"syracusewomanmag_c4lfdt","date":"December 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"D anielle Fiorello did not expect the loss of her sister to transform her into the bright and passionate heart health advocate that she is. 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