Heart To Heart With Anna

Send us a textRoseann Franco returns to "Heart to Heart with Anna" for another episode to talk about the lessons she has learned over the last five decades raising a son with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (also known as L-TGA). She shares with Anna what she did to try to make life as normal as possible for David and some of the ways she knew that David felt anything but normal. In this candid interview, you'll see how even though love cannot cure a congenital heart defect, it can go a long way toward helping a person live a meaningful life of faith.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial Media Pages:Apple PodcastsFacebookInstagramMeWeTwitterYouTubeWebsi

Send us a textRoseann Franco is the mother of a Heart Warrior in his 50s. He was born when the field of pediatric cardiology was in its infancy. Tune in to hear Rosanne share stories with Anna about what it was like raising a Heart Warrior while working and going to school, not to mention raising four other children. Roseann shares her family history of congenital heart disease and the remarkable events surrounding David's birth.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial Media Pages:Apple PodcastsFacebookInstagramMeWeTwitterYouTubeWebsite

Send us a textThis episode of Heart to Heart with Anna features Executive Director of Championship Hearts Foundation Michelle Garcia and Board Member, Lisa Kattawar. Tune in to hear these ladies explain why they decided to join this nonprofit organization, what the organization's mission is and how you can attend the Heartbeats and Heroes 2019 Gala!Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial Media Pages:Apple PodcastsFacebookInstagramMeWeTwitterYouTubeWebsite

Send us a textAllison Holmes is a 46-year-old survivor of CHD. She has seven defects and is also a cancer survivor. She feels that she is thriving with CHD.  She has been evaluated twice for the heart and lung transplant list but is not on the list at this time. Allison has Situs Inversus and her doctors are not sure how to hook up a healthy heart and lungs to the rest of her organs. She works as an ESL tutor from home and volunteers with Meals on Wheels and Carolina Waterfowl Rescue. She is also a North Carolina Adult Congenital Heart Association Ambassador.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial Media Pages:Apple PodcastsFacebookInstagramMeWeTwitterYouTubeWebsite

Send us a textWhen David was born with a critical congenital heart defect, Monica's world changed completely. A former businesswoman, she soon discovered she would need to know more about medicine to take care of her afflicted son. This led to a career change that has helped countless others in the congenital heart defect community. Monica will share with Anna how her training helped her as a parent and what she is doing today to continue to be an advocate for her son.David was born not only with a serious heart defect but also with Hemifacial Microsomia. These two conditions affected him in a variety of ways -- naturally, David's early milestones and development were impacted by his need for surgery and in consideration of his birth defects. In this episode, he'll talk with Anna about how dealing with adversity made him the man he is today.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartW

Send us a textDr. William Novick is a most unusual cardiothoracic surgeon who travels the world mending broken hearts in countries where many of these children would be left to succumb to their congenital heart defects. Together with his team, Dr. Novick does even more than mend broken hearts; however, since he also expends a great deal of time and energy teaching doctors, nurses and support staff in those countries how to care for their heart warriors and he even brings in life-saving technology to leave behind. Tune in to hear about how Dr. Novick got started on this mission, who helps him with this philanthropic endeavor and how you can get involved, too!Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial

Send us a textAubrey Byrnes is a rare mom - she's the mother of Wyatt Nathan Arthur Byrnes, aged 5, and Colton Paul Byrnes, aged 4. Wyatt was born 13 weeks premature and had a rough medical journey. Colton, AKA Superman without a Cape, was born with VACTERL Association, a disorder that affects many body systems. VACTERL stands for vertebral defects, anal atresia, cardiac defects, tracheo-esophageal fistula, renal anomalies, and limb abnormalities. As part of his condition, Colton has multiple CHDs including truncus arteriosus, ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, pulmonary stenosis, and right aortic arch. During his short life Colton has had 52 procedures, including 6 heart catheterizations and 4 open-heart surgeries. Aubrey is married to Rick and together they have a unique, rare outlook on life which has helped them stay together. Aubrey studied American Sign Language Interpreting at Augustana University and works as a freelance interpreter/translator.Thank you to everyone who has helped HU

Send us a textAnita Moreno Marcelo, as the mother of a son with a congenital heart defect (CHD), penned a poem that touched many lives in the CHD community. In this episode of "Heart to Heart with Anna" she talks about why she wrote the poem entitled "The Presence of Greatness," what it meant to her and why she feels it's important for us to talk about how adults with CHDs are treated in medical settings and what we, as a community, can do to improve our Heart Warriors' medical experiences.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate LinkBaby Blue Sound CollectiveSocial Media Pages:Apple PodcastsFacebookInstagramMeWeTwitterYouTubeWebsite

Send us a textWhen a parent has a normally healthy child, it's easy to take a day for granted. Conversely, when a parent gives birth to a special needs child, every day takes on new importance. When a parent has a child with a life-threatening illness, each day can seem like a miracle. How do parents of children with congenital heart defects make each day special? How do parents of CHD survivors make memories everyday? What rituals are significant to a special needs family? When we know that any day could be our last with our CHD survivors, it is even more critical to make each and every day special and to create special memories to sustain us through hospitalizations, medical procedures or, the worst fate a parent can imagine, losing a child too soon.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures fo

Send us a textJoin us today as we talk with Heart Dads, Chris Perez and Michael Madsen about how they made decisions regarding childcare and work after having a child with a critical congenital heart defect.When a family is told they have a baby with a life-threatening illness, does one of the parents have to stay home with the child? Why do some parents choose to become stay-at-home parents? Why do some parents decide to continue working? In this show, we'll discuss the pros and cons of staying at home versus going back to work. Is the health of the child at risk? What about insurance? What about the quality of life of the child with a heart defect? of the family? These are just a few of the issues we'll discuss in this show.Our Guests today have lived through multiple heart procedures with their children, open-heart surgeries and hospitalizations. They have been there through their children's recoveries and complications. Tune in today to hear about how these fathers decided to handle childca

Send us a textHow can you identify a good babysitter or daycare when looking for a facility to care for a child with a congenital heart defect? Is it ever appropriate to leave a child with a congenital heart defect in the care of someone else? What can parents do to ease the transition if they have decided to place their children in daycare or in the care of a babysitter? Do children in daycare or in the care of a babysitter get sick more often? These are just some of the topics we will consider in this episode.Heart Moms Amy Bennett, Adinamarie Pelicci-Alsina and Dawn Silverman discuss strategies and experiences in leaving a CHD survivor in a daycare situation or with babysitters. We will discuss things to look for in a daycare or babysitter and how to best prepare everyone involved for a good transition.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD co

Send us a textBreastfeeding a baby with a congenital heart defect has unique and special challenges. Many babies with critical congenital heart defects are taken away from the mother before having a chance to nurse at all. These babies also frequently have open-heart surgery within the first days or weeks of life and are often intubated and paralyzed which can interfere with the baby's natural sucking reflex. How can mothers breastfeed these medically fragile children? What myths surround breastfeeding a baby with a congenital heart defect? What are the benefits of breastfeeding and what can mothers do if their babies are too weak to nurse? We'll discuss these topics and more with two heart moms who have breastfed their babies and a nurse who is a breastfeeding specialist. This program has been remastered and originally aired in Season 2 of Heart to Heart with Anna.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to dona

Send us a textBoys born with critical congenital heart defects are frequently not able to participate in sports like their heart-healthy peers. Because of the multiple surgeries needed, the frequent need for pacemakers or the concern about arrhythmias and the other complications that can accompany critical congenital heart defects, survivors of these defects frequently have to avoid contact sports or sports that are intensely aerobic in nature. How does this affect sons' relationships with their fathers? How can they still enjoy sports together despite medical restrictions? This show will feature the father of a young son as well as a father/son pair who have experience with this topic.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support the showAnna's Buzzsprout Affiliate Li

Send us a text"Rainbow babies" are babies who are conceived after women have experienced a stillbirth or after a baby has died. We will discuss the process one woman has decided to go through in order to have her own rainbow baby, who is helping her and how others who have lost a baby to a congenital heart defect might find hope in giving birth to a healthy baby.What are the concerns a mother might have in getting pregnant again after having lost a child to a congenital heart defect? What is the likelihood a woman will have more than one child with a congenital heart defect? How do women deal with infertility after having lost a baby to stillbirth or death? These are some of the issues we will address during this episode.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe.com to donate or join us!HeartWorks: We Build HeartsHeartWorks empowers the CHD community by advancing research and finding cures for heart defects.Support th

Send us a textCongenital Heart Defect (or CHD) Awareness is an extremely important issue. Congenital heart defects (heart defects present at birth) are the #1 Birth Defect. While a commonly reported statistic is 1 in 100 babies are born with a heart defect, that statistic does NOT include the most common CHD – bicuspid aortic valve. In fact, that statistic does NOT include a number of CHDs. That means that more than 1 baby in 100 is born with a CHD. Congenital heart defects also kill more babies than any other birth defect. In the United States, there are 40,000 babies born every year with a CHD. There will be one million babies born worldwide with a CHD and 100,000 of them will not live to see their 1st birthday. While these numbers are staggering, there are still many people who are unaware of the fact that babies can be born with CHDs. We must raise awareness to stress the importance of funding research to prevent future generations of children from dying and suffering from this birth defect.Thank you to e

Send us a textWith more children with complex, congenital heart defects, or CHDs, living beyond their first year of life than ever before, parents and the professionals working with those children need to know what normal development is for this group of survivors. What kind of behaviors are normal or common? Is it to be expected that the majority of these children will be labeled “Failure to Thrive”? Is it common for children with major heart defects to need feeding tubes? How does the use of feeding tubes affect speech and language development? What can parents and the professionals working with them do to help these smallest survivors have a good quality of life? Who should be part of children’s care team? When should parents seek outside help? These questions and more are answered in today’s episode: What is Normal Child Development for Children with Complex Congenital Heart Defects?Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other resources. Visit https;//www.heartsunitetheglobe

Send us a textThere are over one million adults alive with a congenital heart defect or CHD. Many surgeries performed on survivors are corrective but not curative. The non-cardiac health issues that seem to appear fairly regularly include, but are not limited to: problems with teeth, (i.e. an abscess, needing wisdom teeth removed or needing braces); scoliosis; problems with legs or feet requiring braces or surgery, pregnancy or female problems, male babies with undescended testicles or concern about circumcision, eye problems, protein-losing enteropathy, other intestinal problems, plastic bronchitis, asthma, strokes, seizures, migraines and allergies. These non-cardiac conditions are more worrisome for heart parents and CHD survivors since everything is more complicated when considering a body which has had open-heart surgery. Special considerations must be made for drugs taken and surgical complications endured. What kinds of non-cardiac health issues are common in the heart community and why?Thank you to ev

Send us a textThe heart is an extremely complicated organ. The muscle on one side of the heart differs from the muscle on the other side of the heart. There are valves that open and close allowing blood to travel to different parts of the heart, to the body and/or to the lungs. The heart has its own unique electrical system. There are structures inside the heart separating different chambers from one another. In babies with congenital heart defects, something goes wrong and there are a lot of places where something can go wrong.We will discuss the noninvasive and invasive procedures doctors currently use to obtain a diagnosis for children with congenital heart defects. We’ll talk with the mother of a child with a very unique heart and how having that child has affected her. We’ll also meet a nurse who is working on developing a feeding protocol to help babies born with congenital heart defects survive when they are between surgeries.Thank you to everyone who has helped HUG in creating our podcasts and other r

Send us a textAlthough congenital heart defects are the number one birth defect, typically newborns have not been screened for heart defects before leaving the hospital. This has tragically led to some newborns passing away from undiagnosed congenital heart defects, sometimes in their mother’s arms. This was the case for Kristine McCormick when her seemingly healthy daughter Cora passed away in her arms. It wasn’t until Kristine received the autopsy report that she realized Cora was born with a severe, congenital heart defect. Vowing to do all in her power to prevent another mother from experiencing her pain, Kristine joined forces with Annamarie Saarinen and others to petition her state to conduct a simple, non-invasive test to detect some of the deadliest heart defects in newborns. Tune in to this episode of Heart to Heart with Anna to find out how these moms on a mission have been able to convince lawmakers to pass legislation requiring pulse oximetry for newborns and what the results have been.Thank you t

Send us a textCongenital heart defects, the #1 birth defect, affect at least 1 in 100 babies born throughout the world yet when asked what causes heart defects, most doctors have had to admit they don’t really know. Many doctors tell parents that their children’s heart defects are “flukes of nature.” Occasionally heart defects are linked to particular diseases mothers were exposed to while pregnant, drugs they took or common to a family, but most of the time, doctors have had no clue what has caused complex congenital heart defects . . . until now. Finally, thanks to the advent of new tests and dissatisfied with vague terms like “flukes of nature” doctors are delving deeper into the actual causes of our world’s #1 birth defect – heart defects. Listen to Episode #5 of Heart to Heart with Anna to find out what kinds of genes can cause heart defects, who should seek genetic counseling and how genetic counseling can save a person’s life in this show: Genetics in the Congenital Heart Defect Community.Thank you to