Archive for heart
Returning to sports after having COVID-19
Mikey LaCroix, age 23, competes in snowboard cross for the U.S. Snowboard Team. In late 2020, he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and had mild symptoms including a low-grade fever, chills, and loss of smell and taste that lasted about two weeks. Before returning to the slopes after his illness, Mikey had to go through specific ... Read More
Appreciating the small things: A New York family’s journey with CHD
The Harris family of Monroe, New York, are no strangers to congenital heart disease (CHD). Eighteen-year-old Jack Jr. grew up living with CHD, but had always been active. His father, Jack Sr., had also lived an active adulthood, completely unaware of his future CHD diagnosis. When they each found themselves in need of heart surgery, ... Read More
Coordinated care and research for genetic cardiovascular disorders
Genetic cardiovascular disease in children sometimes comes to light in a crisis — a sudden collapse, sudden breathing difficulty, a sudden death in the family. Or it may be part of a diverse collection of symptoms, mostly having nothing to do with the heart. Sometimes it is picked up incidentally. “From an incidental ECG finding ... Read More
Heart strong: Two families bond over shared challenges
Four years ago, Ali Marcus walked through the door of a coffee shop in Connecticut and met the woman who would soon become her close friend, Britt Sheiber. The two were meeting at the suggestion of a mutual friend: Britt had just learned at a prenatal visit that one of her twins would be born ... Read More
The CAMEO tool: Capturing the complex nature of pediatric nursing
By any measure, nursing is a complex profession. On any given day, nurses must draw on a wide range of cognitive skills and clinical tools to care for their patients, and by extension, their patients’ families. As patients become increasingly complex, so do the specific proficiencies necessary to complete their jobs. Measuring the cognitive complexity ... Read More
MIS-C: The tip of an iceberg? Looking at cardiac care for this rare syndrome
In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, it seemed that children were far less likely to develop serious problems from the disease than adults. Then in mid-March, hospitals started reporting an unusual inflammatory syndrome in children that seemed to be related to COVID-19, now known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). MIS-C can ... Read More
COVID-19 and a serious inflammatory syndrome in children: Unpacking recent warnings
On April 27, an alert circulated from the U.K. about multi-system inflammatory disease in children with COVID-19, based on a small rise in the number of critically ill children with this illness in England. Picked up by multiple media outlets, the alert cited features of toxic shock syndrome and incomplete Kawasaki disease, with some children ... Read More
COVID-19 complications in children: What’s behind the recent alerts?
You may have heard the alerts in the news: a new inflammatory syndrome in a small number of children that appears to be related to COVID-19 and affects multiple organs in the body. Doctors around the world have reported features of toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, in which blood vessels, including the coronary arteries, ... Read More
Gene therapy reverses heart failure in mouse model of Barth syndrome
Barth syndrome is a rare metabolic disease caused by mutation of a gene called tafazzin or TAZ. It can cause life-threatening heart failure and also weakens the skeletal muscles, undercuts the immune response, and impairs overall growth. Because Barth syndrome is X-linked, it almost always occurs in boys. There is no cure or specific treatment. ... Read More
When your child has CHD: Advice from parents for parents
“When you enter the world of congenital heart conditions (CHDs), everything can feel new, scary, complicated, and fast paced,” says Claire Poole, mother of Ava, a 17-year-old heart patient at Boston Children’s Hospital. This Heart Month, we asked Claire to kick off a post on our Heart Center Facebook page inviting parents to share their ... Read More