Heart to Heart with Anna

Send us Fan Mail Beth Greenaway was an extremely competitive athlete despite the fact that she was born with a pulmonary valve problem which required surgery in her childhood. Join us today as she describes the kind of problems she encountered after falling out of medical care for over a decade, how her athletic prowess was affected and what kind of treatment she needed in order to continue to be...

Send us Fan Mail Greg Bassett was an athlete in his 40s when he was told, during a routine physical, that he had a heart murmur. Before he knew it, he was visiting a cardiologist and events would transpire to change his life. Join us as Anna talks with Greg about what it was like to discover he had a congenital heart defect, the plans and actual course of treatment he underwent and how he's d...

Send us Fan Mail Ed Rucci joins Anna today on 'Heart to Heart with Anna" to talk about how his heart attack has affected his life. Join us to hear how the event transpired, surprising this Cardiac Athlete™ who was a competitive athlete taking part in triathlons. Learn what he feels was the culprit in causing his heart attack and what measures he's gone to to make sure it doesn'...

Send us Fan Mail Graeme Sutton was 50 years old before discovering he had a potentially life-threatening heart defect. Join us today as Graeme shares with Anna what it was like to discover that he had, not only a serious heart defect, but also a disease process which could cause him to have a stroke or die. Learn about how he had to handle this delicate situation and how he strove to regain his li...

Send us Fan Mail Roger Potter was born in the 1940s -- a critical time in the era of open-heart surgery because it was in 1944 that Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig performed the first operation to save a "blue baby." Roger was one of the original "blue babies" saved by this pioneering open-heart surgery. Listen today as Roger shares with Anna what it was like for him growing up wit...

Send us Fan Mail Neil Collins was born with the most common congenital heart defect - a bicuspid aortic valve. Join us today as we learn about what it was like growing up with this heart defect, how long it took to become a problem and what Neil did about it. We'll learn how it affected his profession, what considerations went into the open-heart surgery and what it meant to Neil regarding hi...

Send us Fan Mail Like so many of the Cardiac Athletes™ Anna has interviewed for this Spotlight on Cardiac Athletes™, Aimee Osinski discovered her heart condition after she thought she was in tip-top shape and in adulthood. It was quite a shock for Aimee to discover her condition. Tune in to hear Aimee talk with Anna about her diagnosis, what transpired and how it affected her life. Aimee also shar...

Send us Fan Mail Martin Brady was a runner from an early age but at age 24 he discovered something startling -- he was born with a bicuspid aortic valve. Join us as Martin shares what happened to him after he discovered he had this birth defect, how he prepared himself for the inevitable and what consequences he's endured since having his heart valve replaced. Martin has submitted an essay fo...

Send us Fan Mail Green Bay Packer #96 -- Michael Montgomery -- was a defensive end with a history of 123 tackles and 5 sacks. He also harbored a little-known secret -- he was born with a potentially life-threatening congenital heart defect. Had it not been for the quick thinking of the Texas A & M football staff, Michael Montgomery very well could have died in college and would never have play...

Send us Fan Mail Today we'll meet with Cardiac Athlete™ Tracie Happel as she talks with Anna about the unusual circumstances that led to the diagnosis of a rare heart defect that could have claimed the life of her and her son. Tune in to hear the difficulties Tracie experienced in getting a proper diagnosis and what advice she has for other female athletes who experience symptoms like hers. Y...

Send us Fan Mail Tune in to hear Richard Gardner talk to Anna about his journey from athlete to discovery that his heart had a valve problem to having open-heart surgery and then his decisions regarding exercise following his surgery. Listen to the compromises he had to make and how he feels about those compromises. Richard Gardner will be participating in the 2nd book in the Cardiac Athlete serie...

Send us Fan Mail Barry Stone is a very special Cardiac Athlete™. At 74 years old he is a triathlete who has loved athletics all his life. Tune in to hear him share about his life, his challenges, what it was like to be told he had a "heart murmur" in his 30s and what they did about it as well as other problems that cropped up over the years. You'll hear his advice for Cardiac Athlet...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on Heart to Heart with Anna this week for another spotlight on Cardiac Athletes. Today we’re talking with athlete Benjamin Lee who went from living a "normal" life as an athlete for over two decades before discovering he had a potentially fatal heart defect. Join us as we discover how he went from being a healthy athlete to having to make some major changes in hi...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on Heart to Heart with Anna this week for another spotlight on Cardiac Athletes. Today we’re talking with athlete Lisa Johnson who went from training in gymnastics, Olympic weightlifiting and crossfit to heart surgery and finding out she had both a congenital defect and autoimmune disease. It’s a fascinating story about triumph, loss and struggle and Lisa is quite the hero...

Send us Fan Mail This week, and for the next several weeks, Heart to Heart with Anna will be a Spotlight on a Cardiac Athlete. You can learn more about Cardiac Athletes, you can visit this website: http://cardiacathletes.com/This week's spotlight is on Tim Howard. Join us as Anna interviews Tim about his cardiac disease, how he responded to his doctors and what it means to him to be a Cardiac...

Send us Fan Mail This is our first Heart to Heart with Anna episode entirely in French for our French-speaking Heart Community. Today's topic deals with the Fontan heart and liver involvement. La procédure de Fontan a été utilisée depuis les années 1970 pour traiter les personnes avec une physiologie du ventricule unique--également connu sous le nom d’un cœur options. Il a également été utili...

Send us Fan Mail Today Jessica Gutierrez-Rodriguez talks with us about how she has discovered her single-ventricle heart warrior's hidden talents. She also shares with us Marianne's early years and some of the challenges she's had to overcome. Jessica shares how she has come to discover her daughters' hidden talents and how she and her family have worked to foster her daughters...

Send us Fan Mail The importance of early childhood education (ECI) cannot be denied. At-risk children who are given ECI tend to do better and many can even start kindergarden with their peers. Today's program features Roxanne Montalvo-Tsai, a heart mom to a healthy little boy and twin girls who were both born with tetralogy of Fallot. Enjoy today's program as Roxanne shares with Anna how...

Send us Fan Mail For many parents, after they have a child with a critical congenital heart defect their world completely stops for a time. Some parents become paralyzed with fear. They are afraid to move forward because while pursuing their own dreams, their baby could become sick and perhaps even die! This makes it very difficult for parents because in pursuing their dreams, they might feel they...

Send us Fan Mail It's back-to-school time and "Heart to Heart with Anna" wants to make sure that Heart Parents are prepared to send their Heart Warriors back to school! Enjoy today's program with Lisa O'Connor, a special education advocate. Lisa shares with Anna some of the accommodations that many children with special needs have and how Heart Warriors need an Individuali...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when our Heart Warriors age out of high school but are not ready for college or trade school? What can parents do to prepare their children for adulthood when cognitively they may not be where their peers are? Join us today as Kathy Keller shares her experiences and advice with us! Kathy's Heart Warrior, Garrett, was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and...

Send us Fan Mail Season 10 of Heart to Heart with Anna is focused on educational issues but almost all of the programs have dealt with Heart Warriors in the United States. Join us with this program as we go Down Under to talk with an Australian Heart Warrior and what she experienced growing up with a congenital heart defect. Did Megan have the same kind of experiences her American counterparts had...

Send us Fan Mail Join us in this episode as we investigate a world filled with acronyms and letters (504 Plans, IEPs, ARDs). Special Education Instructor and Heart Mom Marie O'Donnell demystifies the world of special education as she explains what different kind of special education plans are, who can benefit from them and how the plans for children born with congenital heart defect can chang...

Send us Fan Mail The number of families in the United States and around the world who are choosing to homeschool seems to be on the rise. There are a number of countries where it is illegal to homeschool but in the countries where it is not illegal, it is a viable option and often reaps great rewards for the children and the families as a whole. For many people, homeschooling is more than an educa...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you expect a perfectly healthy baby but after delivery you discover your baby has a heart defect -- one that will require open-heart-surgery to fix? How can ordinary parents learn about the function of the heart? What should they teach their children about their heart defects? Who can help parents to learn about heart defects? What kind of support is available fo...