Heart to Heart with Anna

Send us Fan Mail Those who have been through the trauma of having open-heart surgeries and dealing with all of the situations that accompany them have many choices. They can choose to be positive and to see the bright side, even when things get difficult or they can choose to feel negative and like what is happening to them is unfair. Survivors can choose to let their heart defects define them or...

Send us Fan Mail Many mothers believe their babies are miracles, but few know that to be a fact like mothers of children born with broken hearts. When mothers are told their unborn or newborn babies have something wrong with their hearts, the news is devastating. When mothers see their littles one fight for their lives and survive open-heart surgeries only to have difficulty feeding, gaining weigh...

Send us Fan Mail Some people are born with broken hearts that seem to function adequately for years before they start to decline and become unable to sufficiently support life. With the invention of pacemakers, ventricular assist devices, and defibrillators, it seems that even broken hearts can function for quite a while with the miracles of modern medicine. But sometimes, even these magical devic...

Send us Fan Mail Miracles seem to be all around us, but some miracles are thanks to the great strides made in the field of pediatric cardiology. What kind of advances have been made over the years? What are some techniques being used that can save untold numbers of lives? How, exactly, are babies or children benefiting from the developments in pediatric cardiology? This show will feature the mothe...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you're told your baby's only hope for survival is a heart transplant and that even with that there were no guarantees? When parents rely on faith, instead of on medical "facts," can they possibly be granted a miracle? Tune in to hear Kristi Pena discuss her experience with having a son with Barth Syndrome -- a son she admitted to hospice care...

Send us Fan Mail When parents are told their children will be born with a heart defect, they often wonder what kind of life their children will have. Will they constantly be hospitalized? Will they have to endure one surgery after another? Will they be able to run and play with other children? Then as our children age and start answering some of those early questions we parents have new questions...

Send us Fan Mail When children survived the early heart surgeries of the 1940s, ‘50s and 60s, it was often considered miraculous. It is because of amazing doctors Dr. Robert Gross, Dr. Helen Taussig, Dr. Alfred Blalock, Dr. William Rashkind (and far too many others for me to mention) that we now have over 1 million adult survivors of congenital heart defects in the United States alone. Today’s sho...

Send us Fan Mail Season Five of "Heart to Heart with Anna" has focused on miracles that happen in the congenital heart defect community. The first 4 shows were all about miracles that took place in the United States of America. Today's show will feature a very special dad in Pakistan who has not only witnessed miracles, but who has been partially responsible for these miracles occur...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes a person is with us for only a short period of time and yet that person leaves a legacy that touches others forever. That is the case with little Mary Beth Miller. Tune in to her her mother and father talk about her life, the miracles they witnessed and how one little girl influenced others to pass a law to save countless other babies born with the number one birth defec...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you are a nurse and the father of a child who is perfectly healthy when all of a sudden you are the father of a baby with a chronic illness but nobody believes you when you say something is wrong? What lessons can be learned from a situation like that? What events transpired? How is it that the baby's survival could be viewed as a miracle? What conditions ex...

Send us Fan Mail There are hundreds of thousands of children awaiting adoption around the world. In the United States alone, according to the Adopt America Network, there are 130,000 children in the U.S. foster care system waiting to be adopted. Children are awaiting adoption for many reasons. Children with medical issues can be more difficult to place with adoptive families. While adopting a chil...

Send us Fan Mail Having twins seems like a miracle all by itself, but our Guest, Kathy Kolodzinski has a remarkable story to share. Listen to her as she shares the miracle of birth, how her son's undiagnosed congenital heart defect could have taken his life shortly after birth and how one decision, different than she made with the birth of her other children, just might have contributed to th...

Send us Fan Mail 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 physio...

Send us Fan Mail Child Protective Services is supposed to help children who may be neglected or abused but what kind of damage can they exact when they interfere with a family who has a child with a complicated medical history -- including a congenital heart defect? How could this organization pull a family apart? Did the child’s congenital heart defect play a pivotal role in CPS’ decision to remo...

Send us Fan Mail Now, more than ever before, parents are finding out in utero if their baby will be born with some kind of congenital birth defect. One potentially fatal congenital heart defect is hypoplastic left heart syndrome (or HLHS). According to Texas Children's Hospital, this occurs in about 1 in 6,000 live births when the fetus's left side of the heart does not develop normally....

Send us Fan Mail Having twins is a very special occurrence since it doesn't happen all that often. What happens when you have twins but one, or both of them, have a congenital heart defect? How does that affect other children in the same family? Will you be able to breastfeed your twins? Today's guests can answer those questions since both are moms of heart-healthy children and children...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Woody Benson has been practicing in the field of pediatric cardiology for 43 years. He is a pioneer in the field of pediatric electrocardiology and for the last 20 years he has been training or researching the molecular genetics of pediatric heart disease. Clearly few pediatric cardiologists have experienced or even been partially responsible for some of the amazing changes we...

Send us Fan Mail Ted and Mary Kay Klein will talk about how their daughter, Karen Klein McNulty, inspired them to become involved in the CHD community and how Karen had the insight to develop an organization specifically for adults with congenital heart defects. Tune in as Ted and Mary Kay discuss their upcoming conference, who the guest speakers will be and what topics will be covered. Don't...

Send us Fan Mail Being born with the most common birth defect still means you're not like everyone else. Going through the teen and young adult years is difficult for everyone, but it's even more difficult for survivors of congenital heart defects. Unlike their peers, Survivors frequently have to take medication, have to see their cardiologist regularly and sometimes even have to have ad...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes our littlest heart heroes need extraordinary help in order to survive. One of the most extraordinary machines used to save our babies born with congenital heart defects is known as ECMO which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This is a special machine that takes blood from the body, oxygenates it using an artificial lung, and pumps it back into the body usi...

Send us Fan Mail It is not uncommon for children who have undergone open-heart surgery to have some developmental delays. Are these delays severe enough for them to qualify for special services? What happens when our children with congenital heart defects have developmental issues, but they aren't delayed enough to qualify for Early Childhood or Special Education programs? What recourse do pa...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you are pregnant and go in for a routine ultrasound only to discover your baby has a heart defect? How do you handle the news? What options are you given? Even though congenital heart defects are the number one birth defect, there aren't many people who talk about it and it's not a widely known fact. Today we'll talk with three mothers who have bee...

Send us Fan Mail Congenital heart defects (or CHDs) are the number one birth defect and yet, this is one of the best-kept secrets! How do members of the CHD community change all of that? Our Guests today include a young woman born with a critical congenital heart defect and her mother. For over 30 years this dynamic duo have been dealing with congenital heart defects -- beating the odds and surviv...

Send us Fan Mail Congenital heart defects are the number one birth defect yet there are few movies depicting members of the congenital heart defect (CHD) community or CHD themes. "Silent Cries" is a movie written by the father of a child with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. What makes "Silent Cries" so touching is how it has brought the CHD community together in ways unforesee...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you're born with a congenital heart defect but have the opportunity to lead a normal, healthy life until you reach adulthood but then your whole world gets upended when your heart becomes the focus of your existence? How can a person go from feeling just like everyone else to realizing her heart is special and unique and that it also needs tender, loving car...