Alot of Heart in Houston

My family and I were invited to the 2nd annual "It's My Heart" congenital heart defect conference this past weekend in Houston, Texas at the United Way Center. I was one of the speakers.

With almost 20 chapters spread throughout the United States, I'm grateful to know there are so many people organized to help families affected by congenital heart disease.

Folks were anxious to hear from Charles D. Fraser, Jr., M.D., an internationally recognized leader in pediatric and congenital heart surgery, who was recently appointed surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

I should note that good surgeons are celebrities to those who have had their children worked on and Dr. Fraser is well loved. He leads a team of more than 100 surgeons representing multiple pediatric surgical subspecialties at one of the nation’s largest children’s hospitals.

Dr. Fraser's, who studied at John Hopkins University, discussed the history of pediatric heart surgery and then focused primarily on what's being done for patient's with single ventricle. He said every case is different and unique. "We've come really far in since our early fontan procedure came into play," said the surgeon. He showed us the number of procedures now available before a person needs a transplant. For example, Dr. Fraser wants more research and practice done towards replacing sections of the heart with gortex, cadaver tissue, and animal tissue before having to go to the length of doing a heart transplants. He was very optimistic and soft spoken about the future of people with congenital heart disease.

Later, we broke into groups and heard from a variety of speakers on subjects like managing stress, future of CHD, and others.

I enjoyed breaking into the teen summit (no parents allowed) with some of the teens and adults discussing their feelings about living with CHD. The gentlemen who led the group discussion has my similar defect and is a psychiatrist at the hospital.

Photo: A few of the adults from the Houston area living with congenital heart disease. It was really inspiring for me to be with this group.

Most talked about what they'd like to do in life, their hopes and dreams. We talked about how hard it is on their parents or loved ones. One by one we talked about each of our different diagnosis. To lighten things up one kid said that in addition to his CHD he had been diagnosed with "awesomeness" but it wasn't contagious.

Overall, organizations like It's My Heart, Intermountain Healing Hearts, Saving Tiny Hearts, ACHA, and the many other foundations throughout our nation are doing great work. I'm so please to be part of this effort to help lift each other.