Our Story
The Gootter-Jensen Foundation was founded in honor of Steven M. Gootter, a beloved father, husband, and brother who lost his life to sudden cardiac arrest in 2005. In 2023, the Foundation joined forces with Murphy Jensen, world-renowned tennis champion and sudden cardiac arrest survivor.
Discover Their StoriesOur Story
The Gootter-Jensen Foundation was founded in honor of Steven M. Gootter, a beloved father, husband, and brother who lost his life to sudden cardiac arrest in 2005. In 2023, the Foundation joined forces with Murphy Jensen, world-renowned tennis champion and sudden cardiac arrest survivor.
Discover Their StoriesIn Memory of Steve
On February 10, 2005, Steven Mark Gootter began his day like any other.
He got up early, rounded up the family dog, and headed out for a morning jog. That was the last time his wife, their two young children and the rest of his family and friends would see him alive.
Steve never came home again. Sudden cardiac death had claimed the life of this vibrant, athletic, healthy 42-year-old man. Steve was a non-smoker, had no history of heart disease, and no prior warnings of heart failure.
A state tennis champion in high school, Steve excelled at sports throughout his life. He was an entrepreneur who enjoyed a successful career in real estate, financial planning, and mergers & acquisitions. He was very skilled at fostering his own and others’ creative ideas. He, himself, held several patents. The products he invented are sold in 27 countries.
He possessed an extraordinary zest for life and a legendary sense of humor.
A compassionate, generous, fun-loving man, Steve lived every day to the fullest. He was a “people magnet” who was blessed with the gift of making everyone he met feel special.
Above all, Steve was a devoted family man. The joy of his life was his children; his then five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son. He is greatly missed by all who knew him.
Steve’s untimely death mobilized his sister, Claudine Messing, and her husband, Andrew, along with Steve’s family and friends, to establish the Steven M. Gootter Foundation with the objective of sparing others the tragedy of losing a loved one to sudden cardiac death (SCD).
In Honor of Murphy
While playing in a tennis exhibition on October 29, 2021, Murphy Jensen suddenly collapsed to the ground.
Smacking the back of his head while he fell on the court, four individuals with medical training quickly rushed from the stands to his aid. Murphy’s wife, Kate, quickly leapt from her seat, while his older brother and tennis partner, Luke, ran to his side.
Murphy’s skin felt cold and looked blue. Chest compressions and rescue breaths were given. An AED was used by a retired fire chief. Murphy’s heart had gone into cardiac arrest—he would not breathe on his own again for 18 minutes.
On the court, he received four shocks from the AED and two more on the way to the hospital. Finally, his heart rhythm stabilized. 50 hours later, Murphy awoke from an induced coma and began his recovery.
“My hope is to ensure that wherever there’s a tennis court, there’s an AED.”
As world-renowned tennis champions with big personalities, Murphy and Luke Jensen won six straight matches in the 1993 French Open, confirming their title as Grand Slam Doubles Champions and the epitome of “rock n’ roll tennis.”
Having struggled with addiction, Murphy was no stranger to confronting death both on and off the tennis court. After suffering from a variety of heart problems stemming from myocarditis resulting in cardiac arrest, Murphy is now 19 years sober and has promoted CPR and AED training since 2012.
Today, Murphy Is focused on his family and building WEconnect Health, a digital app supporting mental health and addiction recovery, and advocating for SCD awareness and education by partnering with the Gootter-Jensen Foundation.
Our Why
Every 90 seconds, this insidious killer claims another victim.
Each year in the United States, more than 335,000 lives are lost to sudden cardiac death—more than lung cancer and breast cancer combined. Because there are so few survivors to tell their stories and encourage others to assess their own risk factors, most people are unaware of the danger sudden cardiac death can pose until it strikes close to home.
After Murphy Jensen, a longtime supporter of the Steven M. Gootter Foundation, nearly died from sudden cardiac arrest in 2021, he felt called to spread awareness of this devastating issue.
In 2022, the Steven M. Gootter Foundation and Murphy Jensen joined forces to become the Gootter-Jensen Foundation. Our mission to defeat sudden cardiac death through increased awareness, education, scientific research and the distribution of AEDs continues with the goal of widening the reach of our impact nationwide.
The Gootter-Jensen Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives by defeating sudden cardiac death (SCD) through increased awareness, education, scientific research, and the distribution of AEDs.
