Tag "cardiomyopathy"
A Tale of Two Heart Transplants
This is a tale that I never imagined I would be telling. A tale that involves both of my children being diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, and both needing heart transplants within three years of each other. Katie’s Tale It all › Continue Reading
Cardiomyopathy is a heart disease that can be life threatening, especially if you don’t know you have it. Some people have no symptoms of the disease. Others have symptoms but aren’t aware that they need to act on them. You › Continue Reading
Doctors in the Heart Institute are using an experimental stem cell procedure to preserve 19-year-old Caleb Sizemore’s heart function. Sizemore has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which leads to scaring on his muscles, including his heart. “We’re going in and trying to › Continue Reading
Heart to Heart: Ryan Meets Kirk Urso – Part 2
When our son Ryan was born with a congenital heart defect (CHD), the world as our family knew it was turned upside down. If you didn’t read that part of our story yesterday, please go read it here and then › Continue Reading
Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Your Teen Athlete
Stories of teen athletes suddenly collapsing on the sidelines after exerting physical effort make the news quite a lot. Fortunately, these types of cardiac events don’t happen as often as it may seem. But they do happen. And in fact, › Continue Reading
Today, a special little boy named Fuentez Guerra would have turned nine years old. Because of him and the selfless decision of his extended family, two families – the Sprague family in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Foster family in Barboursville, West › Continue Reading
Genetic testing can be a powerful tool in the management of cardiomyopathy. Familial cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that is passed down through a family’s genes. It is a very serious disease that can lead to heart failure and › Continue Reading
Liam was a smart, funny and outgoing three-year-old boy. He walked and talked early and was advanced for his age. He loved dinosaurs and could even tell you which ones ate meat and which one could fly. On June 4, › Continue Reading
Last Summer I had the honor of being an older camper and camp counselor at Camp Joyful Hearts, a residential summer camp for kids and teens that have heart disease. It’s such an amazing camp and experience for these kids › Continue Reading
Seacrest Studios Performance Was My Victory Lap
How My Cardiomyopathy Diagnosis Led Me to Music After receiving a diagnosis of restrictive cardiomyopathy in 2010, I had to stop playing sports all together. At 17-years-old, this was a pretty big lifestyle change for me, and I needed an › Continue Reading
When you hear of someone celebrating a milestone, weddings, anniversaries and graduations probably come to mind. Today we celebrate a different kind of milestone: one year living with a Total Artificial Heart. One year ago today, Tiernee Gonzalez (pictured above, › Continue Reading
The functionality of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is complex. It evaluates the heart rhythm and delivers an electric shock to the heart when it unexpectedly stops. It’s no wonder that an American Heart Association study revealed that only 15 › Continue Reading
It’s a story that we hear too often: a student athlete shoots a game-winning shot and collapses during the celebration. In many cases the underlying cause of that fatal collapse is sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) caused by an undiagnosed form › Continue Reading
Fighting Cardiomyopathy as a Family
In August 2011, I was anxious, nervous, thrilled, worried and relieved all at the same time while walking into Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute. Since the fall of 2008, I felt a strong need to know what my three children’s hearts › Continue Reading
When teen athletes collapse
It happens. Sometimes teen athletes collapse after showing no apparent warning signs. It happened to Sarah (Steel) Anderson. She went into cardiac arrest at 12 years old after coming home from a cheerleading camp. While she had never shown signs › Continue Reading
