Heart to Heart with Anna

What can a healthcare advocate learn by becoming a patient facing a life-and-death situation? Why might a patient advocate write a book about his life-changing heart event?  How does someone who has worked in the field of healthcare for 37 years see the field of healthcare changing to better suit the needs of patients? Thomas Dahlborg is from Brockton, Massachusetts. He began his career in healthc...

What is congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries or ccTGA? Historically, people born with ccTGA tended to do fairly well. Why is it today doctors are choosing to operate on the hearts of babies born with ccTGA? What does Dr. Edward Bove think about the future of babies born with ccTGA? Erin Beckemeier is mom to Conway, born in 2007 with ccTGA, a large ventricular septal defect or...

What happens when a Fontan patient needs a tune-up? What kinds of procedures might a Fontan patient need after living with a Fontan heart? What can we learn from an experienced Fontanner who might be facing multiple medical procedures? Leslie Castro is a 48-year-old former single ventricle patient from Pennsylvania. She was born with tricuspid atresia, pulmonary stenosis and multiple other heart d...

What happens when one daughter, in a set of twins, is diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and the other twin is heart-healthy? How can a family handle having one child in the hospital, separated from her twin? What should families tell their children about their medical history? What is the value of sharing family stories?  
 Lisa and Michael Olivares are parents to identical twins Mabel and...

How can a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother -- determine how to help families like her own? Why would a woman make it her mission to help others with an invisible illness? What can we learn from such a woman? Jackie Renfrow thought her family had a history of epilepsy. After losing her son Jimmy in 2000 and her daughter Crissy in 2002, she was desperate to find a way to save her two baby...

Heart Warrior Lisa Dang Colvil returns to "Heart to Heart with Anna" but this time she is joined by her mother and her daughter. Lisa was born with a complicated congenital heart defect and Anna talks to her mother, Kim, about her experience fleeing war-torn Vietnam, having a daughter in a country where she barely knew the language, and what it was like to discover her daughter had a heart defect....

Mike Edenburn was born in 1943 with Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF). Mike was the 44th patient to receive the Blalock Taussig shunt. On October 2, 1945, Dr. Alfred Blalock, Vivian Thomas, and Dr. Denton Cooley performed heart surgery on Mike. After the surgery, Mike turned from blue to pink and was able to breathe freely for the first time in his life. Mike enjoyed good health until an auto accident at...

Is it possible to meet one’s surgeon over 4 decades after open-heart surgery when you don’t even know if your surgeon was a man or a woman and you only know the last name? Who can help you when the hospital tells you that they don’t have your records anymore? What joy is to be had from connecting with someone who saved your life when you were a little girl? 
Today’s show is A Surprise for Heart Wa...

Why would a Heart Warrior choose to become a Nurse Practitioner? What does the liver and liver health mean to a Fontan Heart Warrior? What does the future hold for people with single ventricle hearts and compromised livers? Mary is a 29-year-old female with hypoplastic right heart syndrome, atrial septal defect, transposition of the great vessels, and coarctation of the aorta. At 9 days old, she h...

What can encourage a Heart Warrior to start learning more about her heart condition? What kind of books has Margaret Ellis Raymond written and what’s the hold-up with the 4th and 5th books? Why would a Heart Warrior start a YouTube channel and what can we expect to see on that channel? Margaret Ellis Raymond is an author, editor, and YouTuber from Portland, Maine. She was born with tricuspid atres...

Leslie Castro is a 47-year-old former single ventricle patient from Pennsylvania. She was born with tricuspid atresia, pulmonary stenosis, and multiple other heart defects, and had the Classic Fontan at the age of 12 in 1985. Just over a year ago, she received a heart transplant. Her donor was a 29-year-old woman who was a Hepatitis C positive intravenous drug user, and Leslie had to take a case s...

Who is Eric Ankerud? Why would someone want to start a nonprofit organization to help the congenital heart defect community? What services does Heartfelt Dreams Foundation provide? Eric Ankerud’s wife, Lori, was born in 1958 with a serious heart defect called 'tetralogy of Fallot.' Lori was known as a “blue baby,” and she had a ventricular septal defect or “hole in her heart. Her first open-heart...

What is it like to be born in Vietnam in the 1970s with a heart defect? What efforts would a mother make to ensure her daughter has a chance for life? How does understanding one’s family history impact one’s future? Amy M. Le shares an amazing story with Anna about her mother's life-changing decision to flee war-torn Vietnam to save her daughter's life by going to the United States where her daugh...

It's official! We are celebrating 300 episodes of "Heart to Heart with Anna"! To help us with this celebration, Alexander Jaworski, Anna's son who was born with a critical congenital heart defect, is the Guest Host and Anna is in the hot seat answering questions about the podcast which you may not be aware of. How did the longest-running podcast devoted to the congenital heart defect community com...

What lessons can we learn from our adult Heart Warriors? Why might a Heart Mom write a book about her life experiences dealing with CHD? How does a Heart Mom take her personal experiences to fight for others in the hospital? Jenny Muscatell is a licensed social worker, blogger, author, photographer, and podcaster. She earned her Bachelor’s in Mental Health and Human Services through the University...

Why would the Queen of England bestow an Order of the British Empire honor upon a doctor for his services to medicine and charity - especially when the charity does not serve the children of Great Britain? How many children around the globe have been saved by this nonprofit? What is this nonprofit organization doing to save children born with the number one birth defect - congenital heart defects?...

How might a Heart Warrior use her adversity to become a poet? What might bring a woman to accept Jesus Christ into her life and thus change her future forever? What can we learn from this gentle spirit who has come close to death herself and lived to bring hope to others? Today’s show is Lisa Colvil: Heart Warrior Author and Poet and our Guest is Lisa Dang Colvil. We’ll start today’s program by le...

How can a couple survive the loss of their precious son? What can be done when an entire country seems to be neglecting the needs of its most vulnerable residents? How can people make a difference in their community? Today's Guest, Jyoti Sagar, answers those questions and so much more! Jyoti Sagar and his wife Prema lost their son Sameer, who was born on December 20, 1983, to a congenital heart de...

In this touching episode of "Heart to Heart with Anna," grandmother Beverly Foster shares with Anna her heart journey with her grandson, Heart Warrior Dhillon. From diagnosis through today, Dhillon's spirit remains steadfast and everyone knows exactly what he would want them to do. Thus, Beverly and her family felt the need to create a special legacy in Dhillon's name. The result? Dhillon's Gift....

How can a child with a complex congenital heart defect survive multiple surgeries resulting in a funky anatomy and then have a successful heart transplant experience? What was it like to be a child with a congenital heart defect in the 1970s when open-heart surgery for children was something new? Why would a Heart Warrior experience Survivor's Guilt? Leslie Castro is a 47-year-old former single ve...

What is plastic bronchitis? What are the red flags that lead to a diagnosis of plastic bronchitis and how is it diagnosed? More importantly, what can be done about it? Today’s guest will answer those questions for us and more! Molly Fee is a mom of two boys and lives SE of Pittsburg. Her 9-year-old younger son, Marshall, was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome or HLHS. Marshall had his Fonta...

Nino Barbalace es il conduttore della versione in Italiano del Programma di "Cuore a cuore con Anna." La puntata di oggi è intitolata “L’Arte di Riparare il Cuore”, e la nostra ospite è Gabriella Ricciardi. Inizieremo la puntata di oggi conoscendo meglio Gabriella ed il suo costante amore per l’arte nella Prima Parte. Nella Seconda Parte, parleremo del percorso che ha Gabriella ha intrapreso per d...

What kind of career field can a woman passionate about art and science enter into to satisfy both of her needs to be creative? What attracted Gabriella Ricciardi to the field of cardiothoracic surgery for tiny broken hearts? Exactly how can artistic talents be of value to a surgeon of babies with broken hearts? Today’s show is 'The Art of Repairing the Heart' and our Guest is Gabriella Ricciardi....

Do Heart Moms who have babies with heart defects have an easier time of things? Why would a Heart Mom write a book? What might entice a Heart Mom to start a podcast? Answers to these questions and more are in this week's episode of "Heart to Heart with Anna." Nicole Groenewald is a Heart Mom to Henry who has HLHS. At the time that Nicole found out about Henry's diagnosis, she felt like she might n...

What is the situation like for people with congenital heart defects in India? What happens to our Heart Warriors as they grow up? What does the Heart Community need to do in order to have a sense of justice for those born with broken hearts? Sajani Nair lives in Calicut, India, and is the mother of Yadhu Krishna, a young man living with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (C...