 | O'Fallon, MO My name is Kyle and I am 10 years old. I was born with a Hypoplastic Right Ventricle, which means that my right ventricle is too small. | |
 | Lake Zurich, IL My name is Nolan and I am 10 years old. When I was 4 years old, I had high blood pressure at my check-up. My doctor ran some tests to find out why I had high blood pressure | |
 | LeRoy, IL My name is Ty and I am 10 years old. I’d like to tell you a story about me that I call ‘The Rookie. | |
 | Westville, IL My name is Jonah. I am 9 years old and in third grade. I was born a “blue baby” due to the problems my heart caused with my blood circulation, which made me look blue in color. They were quite shocked to learn that I have a rare defect known as Ebstein’s Anomaly. They were told that I would never leave the hospital without surgery or medications. | |
 | Dwight, IL My name is Shelby. I am two years old. Doctors discovered my heart defect a couple of weeks before I was born, although they were not able to diagnose exactly what was wrong at the time. | |
 | Spencer, IA My name is Alexa. I am 11 years old and in 6th grade. I was born with a complex set of Congenital Heart Defects, including Transposition of the Great Arteries, Pulmonary Atresia, and Tricuspid Atresia. This means that the right side of my heart did not form correctly. | |
 | Bolinbrook, IL My name is Lindsey. I am 12 years old and in 6th grade. When I was born, the left side of my heart was smaller than normal and the blood flowed mostly in and out of the right side. Also, my Aorta and Pulmonary Artery are reversed. | |
 | Waterloo, IL My name is Hailey. I am 7 years old and in 1st grade. I was born with three congenital heart defects: Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA), Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), and Aortic Valve Stenosis (AVS). | |
 | Opdyke, IL My name is Jaxon. I am 7 years old and in the 2nd grade at Woodlawn. Today, I am very active and lively, and I love my life. I enjoy playing Little League baseball and Peewee basketball. | |
 | Westmont, IL My name is Alicia. I am 8 years old and in the third grade at Holy Trinity School. You'd never know by looking at me that I currently have a heart condition. My parents and I consider my life a gift! | |
 | Chicago, IL My name is Ethan N. I am 7 years old and in second grade. I love playing outside with my friends, especially at the playground! I really like floor hockey and building with Legos. | |
 | Chicago, IL My name is Griffin N. I am 5 years old and in Preschool. I love to play with my cousins and go on trips. My favorite place to go is Disney World! I really like to play sports, too. I am in a gymnastics class where I love to jump and run. | |
 | Elmhurst, IL My name is Emma L. I am 6 years old and in kindergarten at Jackson Elementary. When I was born, my parents found out that I had Down Syndrome and a very complex heart problem. | |
 | Elmhurst, IL My name is Rahil M. I am 8 years old and I am in third grade. When I was born, my parents thought I had a beautiful face and gorgeous eyes, but they didn’t realize until later that I had also brought with me a heart murmur. | |
 | Elmhurst, IL My name is David T. I am 10 years old and I am in fifth grade. In the fall of 2008, we were driving home from my soccer practice. I started to feel that my heart was beating really fast and it felt like I had been punched in the chest. | |
 | Downers Grove, IL | |
 | Naperville, IL My name is Sela P. I am 7 years old and in the second grade. My defect is called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA.) This means that the arteries at the top of her heart were switched. I had a procedure called “arterial switch” when I was just 5 days old. . | |
 | Naperville, IL My name is Vince P. I am 10 years old and in the fifth grade. Vince was born with no formed chambers in his heart and needed a procedure called “complete A/V canal.” Due to complications with Vince’s heart rate, he had surgery when he was two months old. | |
 | Carol Stream, IL My name is Zoe R. I am only 10 months old. I was born on Super Bowl Sunday, February 5, 2012. She was diagnosed with Heterotaxy Syndrome which is very rare. People born with Heterotaxy Syndrome usually have an abnormal arrangement of the organs and in most cases; complex congenital heart defects are present. | |
 | Mahomet, IL My name is Mackenzie B. I am 9 years old and in the third grade. I was born with a CHD called Shone’s Complex. I’ve had seven open heart surgeries since birth. | |
 | Noblesville, IN My name is MacKenzie. I am 13 years old. I had two open heart surgery when I was 12 years old. | |
 | Plainfield, IL | |
 | Indianapolis, IN My name is Michael. I am 3 years old. The American Heart Association (AHA) provides a place for my parents and other parents of heart kids to meet so they can support each other, and I get to meet other kids with special hearts, like me. | |
 | Indiana My name is Bridget. I am 2 years old. Now that my heart has been repaired, I can play and grow like other toddlers my age. My future looks very bright. | |
 | Clarendon Hills, IL My name is Caroline. I am seven years old. Because of all {her surgeries and other procedures} she is an expert with anything medical, and she regularly attends to her stuffed animals, giving them flu shots, strep tests, IVs, doing CPR on them (she learned from an app on Mom’s IPhone), checking their heart, etc. | |
 | Lake Forest, IL My name is Sophia. I am nine years old and in fourth grade. My mom said that we are very lucky to know that my heart was special. When I was only a few weeks old, my pediatrician told my mom that my heart sounded different than other babies and that we should go to a special heart doctor to get it checked.... | |
 | Lombard, IL My name is Tim. On May 30, 2012, he went into cardiac arrest and was admitted to Lurie’s Childrens Hospital in Chicago until he was fortunate enough to receive a heart transplant June 20. Tim was officially discharged July 26th! | |
 | Algonquin, IL My name is Jenna Lynne. I am 8 years old. I don't have any restrictions, but I know my limitations. I take daily medication and see my cardiologist every 6 months. Another surgery is on the horizon, but we don't know when. | |
 | Great Bend, KS My name is Michael. I am 11 years old. I am lucky to be alive! I can not play contact sports, can not be forced to run, and can not play any competitive sports. Extreme heat and cold also are bad for me. But there are other activities that I can do and just had to learn my limitations. more | |
 | Des Plaines, IL My name is Skylar. I am going to be 11 years old. I was born a month premature with a condition called Aortic Stenosis. I was only 3 pounds and 6 ounces. I had to stay in the hospital for a month before I could go home. | |
 | Naperville, IL My name is Kyle. I am 3 years old. St. Patrick's Day is an appropriate birthday for Kyle! Shortly after he was born, Kyle had a procedure called a balloon atrial septostomy to allow more oxygen uptake. more | |
 | Chadron, NE My name is Noah. I am 7 years old. I survived an ischemic stroke at 22 months of age. I temporarily lost the use of my right side and had to relearn to walk and use my right hand. more | |
 | Scott City, KS My name is Madison, and I am 14 years old. At the track, I noticed that I would get real tired and run out of breath easily. I went from running a 9 minute mile the year before, to a 14 minute mile, so they knew something was really wrong. more | |
 | Indianapolis, IN My name is Cassidy. I am 9 years old. I don't remember being sick when I was a baby, but I look at the pictures my parents took to see how I was. I had lots of tubes coming out of me! more | |
 | St. Louis, MO We are Katelyn and Matthew. We were born three years apart but with very similar heart defects. more | |
 | Woodridge, IL My name is Kaitlyn. I am 7 years old. I was born with a complex heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), which means that the two major vessels that carry blood away from the heart -- the aorta and the pulmonary artery -- are switched. more | |
 | Wakefield KS | |
 | Lockport, IL My name is Grace. I am 3 years old. She underwent her first surgery, a cardiac catheter procedure to open up her pulmonary valve, less than 24 hours after she was born | |
 | Carol Stream, IL My name is Mikey. I am a 5th grader in Carol Stream, Il. I have SVT. That stands for Supraventricular tachycardia. Every once in a while I have an SVT episode. That is when my heart beats really fast. There are special things that I do to slow down my heart rate, like stand on my head. more | |
 | Center Grove, IN My name is Mason. I am 3 1/2 years old. I was born with a rare, life threatening congenital heart defect, called Truncus Arteriosus, in which a single vessel comes out of the right and left ventricles, rather than forming a pulmonary artery and aorta. Because of this, Mason underwent major open heart surgery at Riley when he was 17 days old. more | |
 | Avon, IN My name is Norah. I am 2 years old, and my mom was in the hospital for two months because of her heart. I missed her a lot. more | |
 | Avon, IN My name is Owen and I am 4 years old. After my mom was in the hospital for two months because of her heart, I had nightmares and was worried that she would go away again. more | |
 | Avon, IN My name is Jacey. I am 11. It was not until my mom got better that I understood that this happened so my mom could reach out to others. more | |
 | Omro, WI My name is Amber J. I was running in my 2nd hour gym class and suddenly fell to the ground and stopped breathing. I didn't know my heart had been damaged. more | |
 | Lexington, NE My name is Bethzy C. When I was an infant, I was diagnosed with Patent Ductus Arteriosus, which developed into an enlarged heart. more | |
 | Larned, KS My name is Christian B. I was born with a congenital heart defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), which means an underdeveloped left side of the heart. The aorta and left ventricle were too small and the holes in the artery and septum were not properly matured and closed. more | |
 | Oak Forest, IL My name is Dana M. I was born with a heart valve - the tricuspid - malformed. Before I was two I had open heart surgery to replace the valve. more | |
 | Cameron, MO My name is Sage B., and I am three years old. My heart problems don't slow me down - I love gymnastics. more | |
 | St. Louis, MO My name is Jeremy C. I was born with a rare heart defect and have gone through 4 open heart surgeries. more | |
 | Crown Point, IN My name is Colin C. I was born with a heart murmur and a congenital heart defect – double outlet right ventricle. more | |
 | St. John, IN | |
 | Darien, IL My name is Annie B. I love playing soccer, swimming on the Hinswood Kahunas swim team, participating in gymnastics, and riding horses. These are great opportunities after what I went through as a baby. | |
 | Villa Park, IL My name is Ellie. I spent my first five weeks in various hospitals where it was determined that I had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). This syndrome is in a category of electrical abnormalities called "pre-excitation syndromes." more | |
 | Champaign, IL My name is Nicholas B. I know my heart is special, and that is why it is so important to continue to support the Heart Association. I will have a better chance of living a healthy and normal life with the continuing research and technology that the American Heart Association provides for me and all heart kids. more | |
 | Cantrall, IL My name is Cody P. My heart use to be different than other kids’ hearts because it would beat too fast at random times. I never knew when it would happen. more | |
 | Waterloo, IL My name is Donnie F. I knew that I wanted to help collect donations for Jump Rope For Heart, especially because I have heart disease myself. Now I can do everything other kids can do. This is my 2nd year playing baseball and soccer - I really like it! more | |
 | Bloomington, IN My name is Blake H. I love to make people happy and making a positive impact is one of my biggest goals in life. My reason for being is to use my knowledge from personal experience to teach people the importance in life and how to make to most out of it. more | |
 | Clinton, IN My name is Joshua L. My name is Joshua. I am 11 years old. I love to play basketball, make new friends, help others, and enjoy being active in church. I love learning new things about animals. I am a huge Colts fan. more | |
 | Whitewater, WI My name is Zach T. Zach was born missing half his heart. He has been through three open heart surgeries and continues to fight heart disease every day. Living with just two chambers in his heart, he will always need medication and intense cardiology checkups to monitor his condition. more | |
 | Whitewater, WI My name is Nicole T. and Zach is my brother. It all started in my kindergarten year when I brought home a flyer about the Jump Rope for Heart event my school would soon be doing. I knew this was a way to help kids like my brother who have been born with heart defects. more | |
 | Darien, IL My name is Marty V. Marty was born with a complex heart defect that did not allow his heart to finish growing which left a large hole between his atria (top chambers) and his ventricles (bottom chambers). His heart never correctly formed a mitral valve and his tricuspid valve was deformed. | |
 | Third Lake, IL My name is Rebekah S. I was born with pulmonary stenosis. I had 2 balloon valvuloplasty procedures (at age 1 ½ and again at 3); Then I had an open heart surgery at age 4. (They had to remove my pulmonary valve). more | |
 | Delavan, WI | |
 | Brownsburg, IN My name is Dylan N. Dylan is an active little boy who loves being outdoors and playing with cars, trains and animals of all kind (especially dogs!) He hasn’t let his heart defect slow him down and it’s part of who he is. He likes to show people his scar where the doctors fixed his heart and make a thump thump sound like a heart. more | |
 | Addison, IL My name is Chris P. I had a heart condition called Restrictive Cardiomyopathy and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. One day I went in for a regular cardiac catheter. The results showed that it was three times as bad as when it started a year ago. When I woke up they told me what had happened and that the doctors said "You'll probably need a heart transplant". I was very scared and worried about what would happen. more | |
 | Whitewater, Wisconsin My name is Jack Carl H. I was born May 28, 2007 with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. I had my first open heart surgery when I was 10 days old, my second at 4 1/2 months old and my third surgery in July of 2009. I live at home with my Mom and Dad, two cats who I love and terrorize - Scooter and Bubba. I love to go on "Adventures", I love tractors, trains and trucks of any kind, I love to make big splashes in puddles, I love to spin bowls and balls, I love to go for walks, swim in our pool and play with my friends. Every morning I wake up with a smile on my face and have a very contagious laugh. My mom always signs my name in all capitals because she says I am bigger than life! more | |
 | Naperville, Illinois My name is Lucy Kate S. I am 9 years old, and in 4th grade at Spring Brook School. I was born on August 27, 2003. From the outside, I looked like every other healthy baby born that day - pink and screaming. But I had a severe, complex congenital heart defect called Tricuspid Atresia. I have had several heart surgeries starting when I was five months old. | |
 | Springfield, Illinois My name is Charles, but you can call me Charlie. I have a younger sister, Delaney, and brother, Everett. I like to play Legos - my room is a Lego City and my floor is covered up! I like to put mattresses on the stairs and slide down like you're on a sled. I play T-ball, football and I'm learning how to play tennis. I'm a Packer's fan! I had 3 surgeries by the time I was 3. I was born with 3 valves but they had to take one out because it just flapped around in my chest and didn't do anthing. Now I have just 2 valves. Most people have 4. more | |
 | Carol Stream, Illinois My name is Jack T. I am in Kindergarten at Heritage Lakes Elementary. My Daddy died of heart disease just a few years ago. His body fought really hard to try and kill an infection, but the proteins his body created to fight the infection hardened and settled in his heart. His heart wasn't strong enough to get the blood and oxygen out to the other parts of his body. more | |
 | Bloomingdale, Illinois My name is Kacey. I like to play with my friends and participate as much as possible in P.E. class at Winnebago Elementary School. I was born with my right ventricle missing, and have already had three heart surgeries. I was the Heart Ambassador at my school's Jump Rope For Heart event in 2010. more |
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