Heart to Heart with Anna

How can one mom make a difference when it comes to children born with special needs? What kind of comfort and support is available to children living with a range of illnesses and disabilities? How can you get involved in helping our most vulnerable children feel supported? Lilac Lumpkin is a mom to angel Heart Warrior Jaxon, who was born with HLHS. Jaxon loved many things in his life: pizza, supe...

This is the 3rd episode in our Medical Monday mini-series for Heart Month, February 2023. What pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon seemed "too Hollywood"? Why? What is cross circulation and what was this experimental technique the predecessor of? This Medical Monday episode deals with an amazing experimental surgical technique developed by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei. Frank and Anna Jaworski talk about wh...

Here is another Heart Dad Sunday episode for Heart Month, February 2023. Like the other two episodes, this episode also features Heart Dad Frank Jaworski as the Guest Host. Today's Guest is Carl Wolford. Carl Wolford was born with total anomalous pulmonary venous return or TAPVR and had surgery by Dr. Denton Cooley at 4 months of age in January 1958 at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas....

Why would a pair of teen sisters be interested in working with the American Heart Association? How can these sisters make a difference? How much money do these young ladies plan to raise and how can you get involved? This is the 2nd Saturday Success Story in our Heart Month 2023 mini-series! This features two sisters who have been impacted by congenital heart defects. My Loyal Listeners will remem...

With congenital heart defects being the #1 birth defect around the globe, there are many people touched by this condition. At least 1% of the population is born with a heart defect. Many of them will be innocent murmurs that will close up on their own. But some people have more serious heart conditions. In this special mini-series for Heart Month 2023, Anna asks her Listeners to identify some famo...

This is the 3rd episode in our CHD Spotlight mini-series and we'll be talking about Tetralogy of Fallot. Our expert Guest is Roslyn Rivera and she is a pediatric cardiology nurse who was also born with a congenital heart defect. In this episode, Roslyn shares with Anna what tetralogy of Fallot is, who coined the term for this complex congenital heart condition, what methods are used to palliate th...

This is another episode in our Wednesday Writer Chat mini-series of Heart to Heart with Anna for Heart Month, February 2023. We’ll start today’s program by learning a bit about Maggie and her daughter’s health condition in Segment 1. In the second segment, we’ll talk about how Maggie came to write her book for the CHD community and in the final segment we’ll get some advice from Maggie and learn w...

What are some special considerations that need to be made for the mental health of someone born with a cardiac condition? Why should there be a book specifically for understanding the mental and emotional development of people born with critical congenital heart conditions requiring multiple open-heart surgeries? What makes counselors, born with congenital cardiac conditions themselves, the perfec...

This is the second episode in our Heart Month 2023 Medical Monday series. In last week's Wednesday Writer Chat, Anna talked to author Richard Schwindt about his life and he was born in the 1950s with a congenital heart condition. He informed Anna that monkey lungs helped to keep him alive through one of his surgeries. Curious about what procedure would utilize monkey lungs, Anna did some research...

Why would a heart dad decide to host a podcast? Why would he write a book for the congenital heart defect community? What has this dad learned from having a child with a heart defect? Tom and Kat Hansen are parents to Audrey and Harding. In 2014, Harding was diagnosed with multiple congenital heart defects in utero, for which he has undergone three open-heart surgeries and multiple other procedure...

How safe is it for a woman born with hypoplastic right heart syndrome to get pregnant and carry a baby to term? What considerations need to be made when Heart Warriors with complex CHDs decide to get pregnant? What advice does a Heart Warrior Mom have for others considering having a baby? Katelynn Scoggins was born with a critical congenital heart defect known as hypoplastic right heart syndrome....

With congenital heart defects being the #1 birth defect around the globe, there are many people touched by this condition. At least 1% of the population is born with a heart defect. Many of them will be innocent murmurs that will close up on their own. But some people have more serious heart conditions. In this special mini-series for Heart Month 2023, Anna asks her Listeners to identify some famo...

n our second CHD Spotlight episode, we'll discuss holes in the heart—atrial septal defects (ASDs), ventricular septal defects (VSDs) and more! Today's CHD Spotlight is on the most common type of heart defect commonly referred to as "holes in the heart." This episode features Dr. William Novick—an internationally-known cardiothoracic surgeon and the head of the Novick Cardiac Alliance, a nonprofit...

Are congenital heart defects hereditary? How might someone born with a hole in his heart choose to live his life? Why might a social worker choose to write a book to help the congenital heart defect community? This is our 2nd Wednesday Writer Chat--a special mini-series during Heart Month, February 2023. Today’s show is "Social Worker, Heart Warrior Author" and our Guest is Richard Schwindt. We’ll...

Is it possible to have a baby if you are a woman who was born with HLHS? What problems can occur when a person with a single ventricle heart becomes pregnant? What advice would a Heart Warrior offer others trying to have a baby? Meghan Roswick-Didier is 30 years old and was diagnosed with HLHS at 7 days of age. She had four open-heart surgeries at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia including...

Is it possible there could actually be a cure for congenital heart defects? If so, what might that cure look like? Who would be responsible for creating such a cure? Welcome to our first Medical Monday mini-series for Heart Month 2023. In this episode, you'll revisit HeartWorks, a very special company that is changing the face of treatment for those born with single ventricle hearts, especially hy...

How can a child help her father recover from heart transplant surgery? How important is it for parents to allow their children to be part of the recovery process? What advice does a heart transplant recipient have for others facing being listed for transplant when they are the parents of a young child? This is the first Heart Dad Sunday episode for February 2023 and Frank Jaworski is our Guest Hos...

Annie Ulchak was born in Lima, Peru in 1979 with nomenclature HLHS, pulmonary stenosis, double inlet right atrium, and double outlet right ventricle. She was adopted and had the two-stage HLHS process: BT shunt at age 3 and classic Fontan at age 7 at Boston Children's Hospital. She was diagnosed with CHF and cardiac cirrhosis in 2010. In June 2014, she was diagnosed with autoimmune serositis of th...

With congenital heart defects being the #1 birth defect around the globe, there are many people touched by this condition. At least 1% of the population is born with a heart defect. Many of them will be innocent murmurs that will close up on their own. But some people have more serious heart conditions. In this special mini-series for Heart Month 2023, Anna asks her Listeners to identify some famo...

In our first CHD Spotlight episode, we'll discuss half-a-heart conditions -- hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), hypoplastic right heart syndrome (HRHS), and single ventricle hearts. Dr. Edward Bove is our expert guest. Dr. Bove spent most of his career as a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Michigan Health System. A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Albany Medi...

How can a special education teacher's training influence her writing technique when creating her first children's book? What elements of storytelling are important for young children when they are learning new concepts through books? Why did this mother of a baby with Scimitar Syndrome feel she needed to write a book to help other families like her own? Katy Green is married to her husband Scott,...

What considerations need to be made if patients with congenital heart defects are aligned with the LGBTQ+ community? Dr. Jake Kleinmahon attended medical school and completed his residency in pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine. He continued his training at Children's Colorado, completing fellowships in pediatric cardiology and pediatric heart transplant and advanced heart failure....

How do you enjoy the holidays when your heart warrior is in the hospital during the holiday season? What can you do, as a parent, grandparent, or friend, when a child is in the hospital during the holidays? Why is it especially difficult to have a child in the hospital during the holidays? We’ll answer these questions and more in this episode which features Jenny Muscatell and Lauren Backe. These...

Who is at risk for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)? What can we do to prepare ourselves to help someone who might suddenly collapse from SCA? What does it mean to be #READY?
 
Gwen Fosse is a Clinical Outreach Specialist at University of Michigan Congenital Heart Centre at Mott Children's Hospital. She has almost 50 years of experience working with patients affected by CHD and their families. In her y...

Who is Jake Ryan and why did he write a book? What happens when it’s the parent who is the Heart Warrior? How do you prepare your children for your heart surgery? Jake Ryan was a busy father of three-and-a-half-year-old twins - a son and daughter - when his life changed forever. He collapsed during a routine workout one day at the gym. Fortunately, he was rushed to the hospital where he was diagno...