The Krejci family, from left: Mike, Sara, Virginia and Joe. When Joe was 13, his heart stopped as he ran a 100-yard dash during gym class. (Photo courtesy of the Krejci family) Joe Krejci of Dallas was almost to the finish line of a 100-yard dash during his middle-school gym class when he collapsed onto…
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy survivor Elias Soto. (Photo courtesy of Cecilia Galeana) Lea en español After Cecilia Galeana gave birth to her second child, Elias Soto, a pediatrician performed standard newborn tests. Listening to his heart, the doctor heard a whooshing and swishing sound. Elias had a heart murmur. It could be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, the…
Cindy Allen-Stuckey was one of the first children to have heart defect surgery in the 1950s. (Photo courtesy of Cindy Allen-Stuckey) From the time his daughter Cindy was diagnosed with a heart defect in the 1950s until the day he died more than half a century later, Kenneth Winn carried in his wallet a special…
Dax Serbin (left) with his younger brother, Xander. Dax – now 5 – was born with a combination of heart defects known as tetralogy of Fallot. (Photo courtesy of Gretchen Whitehurst) Amber Noggle’s first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. After that, it was a struggle for her and Dustin Serbin to conceive again. So when…
William Cervantes was born with a heart defect and another rare condition. (Photo courtesy of the Cervantes family) Before their baby was born, doctors had warned Stephanie and Justin Cervantes that his color at birth would be blue. Still – despite knowing he had heart issues, despite months of monitoring him in utero, despite endless…
(jacoblund/iStock via Getty Images) Lea en español In every family, there’s often one person who takes charge of everybody’s health care needs. Who makes sure everyone gets an annual health exam. That they get their teeth cleaned and their prescriptions filled. And that all the insurance claims get filed. If a child gets sick, this…
(JGI/Tom Grill/Tetra Images via Getty Images) A woman begins losing blood during childbirth. Some vaginal bleeding is normal, but is it too much? How that question gets answered – and how quickly a hemorrhaging mother gets treated – can make the difference between life and death. Excessive blood loss is the leading cause of death…
(omgimages/iStock via Getty Images) Lea en español Anybody who has worn a hand-me-down, shared a bathroom or survived a long car trip with a brother or a sister knows that siblings can affect your life in nearly every way possible. Researchers, however, are just starting to unspool the ways those relationships affect health. “It’s kind…
Heart transplant recipient Olivia LeBlanc. (Photo courtesy of Tamika LeBlanc) Tamika LeBlanc was 21 weeks pregnant with her first child when someone from her doctor’s office in Garden Grove, California, called. They wanted her to have another ultrasound. “We didn’t get a great picture of the heart,” she’d been told, prompting LeBlanc to think she…
Dr. Helen Taussig devoted her career to saving the lives of babies and children. (American Heart Association archives) Before Dr. Helen Taussig came along, pediatric cardiology didn’t exist. Babies born with heart defects often turned blue and died. She helped them to live. Before Taussig spoke up, a morning sickness drug, which caused birth defects…