Archive for heart
Improving treatment process so kids can return to sports after COVID-19
Children can’t wait for the next game, the next tournament. Sports means many things to them, including an escape from the uncertainty and stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring that kids can return to sports and resume other types of competitive activities after recovering from COVID-19 has become a priority for parents, coaches, and physicians ... Read More
After a marathon year, let’s make organ donation part of our new normal
Six years ago, an organ donor saved my daughter’s life. Cora was born with a congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), which was fatal if not treated. After more than four years living with HLHS — and six open-heart surgeries — Cora’s only chance of survival was a heart transplant. On the ... Read More
Bringing the Ozaki procedure to the world to repair children’s aortic valves
Children with aortic stenosis or regurgitation often need surgery to reconstruct or replace the aortic valve. However, existing bioprosthetics can fail over time, and mechanical leaflets and valves require lifelong anticoagulant therapy. Christopher Baird, MD, director of the Congenital Heart Valve Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, saw a promising alternative emerge in adult cardiac surgery: aortic ... Read More
From ECMO to star athlete: Kobe’s story
Kobe Perry is fast. This year, the 12-year-old from New Hampshire placed #2 in the United States in the indoor 60-meter sprint and at #10 in the 200-meter for boys in his age group. “Watching Kobe run now, you would never know that he had a heart condition when he was a toddler and had ... Read More
Inspired by Chinese finger traps, an annuloplasty ring that grows with the child
This post is part of a series on innovations to treat valvular disease in children. Read our prior posts on transcatheter valve replacement and an expandable prosthetic heart valve. Prosthetic annuloplasty rings have improved the durability of heart valve repairs in adults. Implanted at the perimeter of dilated, leaky valves, they help keep the valve ... Read More
Single Ventricle Cardiac Home Monitoring Program empowers families to care for fragile newborns at home
A single ventricle heart condition is a congenital cardiac defect in which only one of the heart’s two ventricles is functioning properly. It is most often corrected with three surgeries: the first, shortly after birth, the second, when a baby is 4 to 6 months old, and the third in the toddler years. The Single ... Read More
A repair for Charleston’s complex heart
Trey and Jandie Steele both work in medical device sales. They have spent lots of time in hospital operating rooms and are comfortable discussing complex medical procedures with doctors and surgeons. And yet, when their second child, Charleston, was diagnosed with a number of congenital heart defects one week after her birth, they felt blindsided ... Read More
New findings show risk of bleeding and clotting after COVID-19
A year after COVID-19 was first identified, we have some answers about how to prevent and treat this illness, but there are still many questions. Some of the unknowns include what longer-term effects COVID-19 infection may have on the heart and other systems in the body. One of the complications associated with COVID-19 infection is ... Read More
From ICU patient to nursing student: Atiana’s heart journey
Atiana Lancaster was 13 and playing the last few games of lacrosse season in 2015 when she started having unusual — and worrying — symptoms. “I had horrible headaches, tiredness, chest pain, and trouble breathing, so I had to keep going off the field when I was playing,” she says. “At the time, I thought ... Read More
The brightest rainbow follows the darkest storm: Our PVS journey
Caroline is our rainbow baby, born after the loss of another child, the light and color arising after a storm passes. A rainbow baby lifts a family in desperate need of lifting. It is a beautiful thing that I hope you never experience. Caroline was born on Dec. 10, 2015. Just three months later, my ... Read More