Tony Ferrante, age 24, was born with complex congenital heart disease (CHD). His condition is called pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum and it’s a condition he has and will live with for the rest of his life. According to one of Tony’s adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) cardiologists, Dr. Ashish Saini, CHD is the […]
Deena Barber has a “heart” for nursing
Deena Barber, nurse program coordinator for the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) program, has seen a lot of change in her 36 years as a nurse at Akron Children’s. But one thing that hasn’t changed in all that time is how she treats her patients. “My most important responsibility is to alleviate fear,” she said. […]
Surgery to repair leaky valve mends 4-year-old’s “broken” heart
Addisyn Piekarski and her mom, Kristen, had just the right outfit in mind for Addisyn’s Jan. 13 follow-up appointment with her heart surgeon, Dr. Robert Stewart. Sporting a shirt covered in small hearts, with a large, sequin heart in the center, seemed fitting to meet with the man who just 8 days earlier had repaired […]










