Aubree Blake, age 10, is a bit of a TikTok star thanks to her candid videos sharing her experiences as a young lady living with a heart condition. At 8 days old, Aubree was diagnosed with a coarctation of the aorta, a birth defect where a portion of the aorta is narrower than usual causing […]
Mending tiny hearts: Surgery for congenital heart defect gives 6-year-old a healthy future
Leonardo Velazquez Miller is an active, healthy 6-year-old who loves to swim and play soccer in his hometown of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Looking at him now you wouldn’t suspect he was born with Dextro-Transposition of the Great Arteries or d-TGA, a congenital heart defect (CHD) where the 2 main arteries carrying blood out of […]
Not a second to spare: Quick action and an AED save 5-year-old
As Alexandra (Alex) Lucas and her mom raced down a grocery store aisle for an urgent visit to the bathroom, they found themselves in a very different kind of emergency situation. Upon entering a stall, Alex, just 5 years old, went into cardiac arrest. “Alex fell face-first onto the floor. I thought she must have […]
Surgery for blocked tear duct leads to congenital heart defect diagnosis
New parents Cassie and Michael Amick spent the better part of 2020 looking forward to the birth of their first child, a boy, due in late February. Ashton Michael Amick made his entrance into the world on Feb. 3—3 weeks before his due date. “Besides being a little jaundiced for a day, he appeared […]
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 […]