Heart to Heart with Anna

This season we're focusing on education for Heart Warriors and today's show exemplifies how learning is a life-long process. Today's show deals not only with how Heart Warriors can continue their education about congenital heart defects (CHDs), but how the entire CHD community can continue to become better education about heart issues. Perhaps even more importantly, today's episode speaks directly...

The United States Department of Education reports that homeschooling continues to grow with an estimated 1,770,000 homeschooled students in 2013. That is 3.4% of the school-aged population! This is an increase of 61.8% over the previous ten years. There are many reasons parents choose to homeschool their children but one obvious reason to homeschool a child with a congenital heart defect is to min...

Military families lead a very different life than civilian families do. Military families come from all walks of life and, when their children are diagnosed with heart defects, the challenges can vary according to location, branch of service, and of course separations that come at the most unexpected times. Despite these challenges, military families try their best to find ways to balance all aspe...

Many years ago, when people were diagnosed with congenital heart defects, their doctors warned parents about the dangers of allowing their children to cry, to become upset or to exert themselves. What have doctors learned from those early pioneers in the realm of congenital heart disease (CHD)? How has the medical world come to view CHD Warriors' needs to take part in physical activities? What kin...

Cardiac athletes are all around us. There are athletes who develop heart problems or who discover, after they have been athletes for a while, that there heart has some imperfections that may require surgery and there are people who were born with heart defects who have a great desire to become an athlete and to enjoy the benefits of regular exercise. Lars Andrews, a cardiac physiologist, has creat...

People who are born with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at greater risk for having a TIA (mini-stroke or transcient ishchemic attack) or stroke. A stroke occurs when there is bleeding into the brain (hemorrhagic stroke) or a blood clot blocking blood going into (or through) the brain -- which is called an ischemic stroke. Many people who have CHDs have rhythm problems and these electrical pro...

Today's podcast deals with a topic that all Heart Parents know all too well -- the emotional impact of having a child with a congenital heart defect. Our expert Guest, Yarrow Gillis, talks candidly with Anna about what it's like to have a child born with a critical congenital heart defect, what it's like to have to go through surgeries, the feelings of isolation many parents experience and a possi...

Now that more Heart Warriors are surviving to adulthood than ever before, there is a growing cohort of individuals actually entering middle age. So for the first time ever, there is a group of female Heart Warriors who are actually experiencing the consequences of aging. What happens when female Heart Warriors enter menopause? Are there special considerations that need to be taken for Heart Warrio...

Guest Host, Rita Scoggins, interviews Heart Warrior, Laura Ryan, today about what it was like to raise two children. Laura Ryan is a congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries and DILV (or double inlet left ventricle) Heart Warrior. Rita Scoggins is a Heart Mom to a single ventricle Heart Warrior. They talk about what it means to raise children and what special challenges Laura fac...

Jennifer Gutman is the mother of a son born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In today's show Jennifer talks with Anna about finding out about her son's condition after having lost a sibling to the same condition 30 years earlier. She also shares her advice with other parents considering saving umbilical cord blood for future surgeries. She informs Anna how her son's pediatric cardiologist fee...

Today's show features two Heart Warriors -- Guest Host Carol Raimondi and Guest Roslyn Rivera. Both of these Heart Warriors decided to go into nursing. Tune in to hear why Carol (a cc-TGA Heart Warrior) and Roslyn (an partial atrio-ventricular septal defect and mitral valve replacement Survivor) became nurses, how the job made them view their own heart defects and what changes had to be made in th...

Dr. Wayne Franklin is a pediatric cardiologist specializing in the care of adults with congenital heart defects, and especially those adults with pulmonary hypertension. Today he talks to Anna about the advancements made regarding pulmonary hypertension, what the warning signs are and who is at risk as well as what he sees for the future regarding those who develop PH or PAH (pulmonary arterial hy...

Dr. Timothy Nelson is the director of the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for HLHS at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Nelson and his team are specifically interested in the cause of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) and finding ways to delay and prevent heart failure for individuals with HLHS. To better understand and treat this congenital heart disease, the program has taken a multifaceted approach tha...

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a critical congenital heart defect -- meaning that surgery within the first year of life is necessary to survive. Several decades ago, HLHS was uniformly fatal (except in some very rare cases) and most infants died within the first month of life. Since the 1980s there have been efforts made to save babies with HLHS. The results have been amazing. Now the s...

For decades the medical profession was engrossed in finding a way to help babies born with congenital heart defects to survive infancy and early childhood. It seemed relatively rare for babies born with complex congenital heart defects to become adults. Now there are more adults alive with congenital heart defects than infants being born with such birth defects. Therefore, a great deal of the focu...

The field of pediatric cardiology and that of congenital heart disease has changed a great deal in the last couple of decades. Once upon a time, people born with critical congenital heart defects were called "blue babies" or "cardiac cripples" and were expected to die in infancy or in early childhood. Now that there are more adults alive with congenital heart defects, than babies born each year, e...

Today's show features two very special Guests -- Michelle Steltzer is a nurse and the sister of a Heart Warrior born with a single ventricle heart in the 1970s. Susan Romanesko is Michelle and Greg's mother. She talks with Anna about what it was like to give birth to a Heart Warrior in the 1970s, and how, as an infant and even into adulthood, medical technology and treatments seemed to be just a s...

Wilson Lam is a board certified cardiologist who specializes in adult congenital cardiology and rhythm disorders. In this program Dr. Lam outlines the advancements which have been made in the field of electrophysiology. He shares with Anna the changes that have occurred in life-saving devices such as implantable cardioverter-defibrillators or ICDs and pacemakers, the new medications changing the l...

Last week we met Dr. Gil Wernovsky, a renowed pediatric cardiologist who has dedicated 30 years to treating babies born with congenital heart defects. We talked about a new approach that he designed by working collaboratively with doctors, nurses and parents. What he created was a "roadmap" for treating those babies born with the most complex heart defects. Last week we talked about why he created...

Renowned pediatric cardiologist, author and researcher Gil Wernovsky, M.D., shares his experiences and proposal for a new way to treat those born with complex congenital heart defects with Anna. He shares his holistic vision for treatment of this unique population in down-to-earth, logical terms with Anna. He describes what team members are needed, why it's important to have a more generalized vie...

The Fontan Procedure has been used since the 1970s to treat people with a single ventricle physiology -- also known as a univentricular heart. It has also been used in the last few decades to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) or hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS). Now there are enough long-term survivors of the Fontan Procedure for the medical establishment to know what kinds of co...

What can Survivors of the Fontan Procedure expect regarding their liver? What kinds of consequences can arise from having a Fontan physiology? What forms of surveillance are used to monitor liver health? Tune in to hear renowned expert, Dr. Fred Wu, of Boston Children's Hospital as he answers these questions and much more! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heart-...

Deena Barber has been a nurse for over 30 years. Over that time she has seen many changes in care for those born with congenital heart defects (CHDs). Tune in today to hear her discuss some of the most impactful advancements that have led to a change in the CHD population from being mostly comprised of babies to now having the greater percentage of the population being adult survivors. In Part 2 w...

Deena Barber has been a nurse for over 30 years. Over that time she has seen many changes in care for those born with congenital heart defects (CHDs). Tune in today to hear her discuss some of the most impactful advancements that have led to a change in the CHD population from being mostly comprised of babies to now having the greater percentage of the population being adult survivors. Become a su...

Jennifer Gutman is the mother of a son born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In today's show Jennifer talks with Anna about finding out about her son's condition after having lost a sibling to the same condition 30 years earlier. She also shares her advice with other parents considering saving umbilical cord blood for future surgeries. She informs Anna how her son's pediatric cardiologist fee...