Meadow EmmaLou Boes loves princesses. The 2-year-old is obsessed with Elsa from “Frozen.” Among her growing vocabulary, three of her top words are, “Let it go!” “Meadow lives life at 100%,” said Sarah, Meadow’s mom. “You’d never know she was born with a life-threatening heart condition.” In summer 2022, Sarah and her husband, Ben, were…
Early beginnings and diagnosis Titus Williams’ journey as a heart patient started the moment he was born. As soon as he was delivered via cesarean section at a hospital in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, doctors noticed something was wrong. He was quickly transferred to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, where doctors discovered he was born with pulmonary…
Mere days after Rowan Adams came into the world, her parents noticed something was wrong. “She started to breathe really hard and rapidly; she wouldn’t eat,” said Kristina Adams, Rowan’s mom. “When I was holding her, I noticed she was cold, and when we checked her temperature, it was 94 degrees. It was over the…
As a nurse practitioner for Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, Mary T. “Terri” Massey, APRN, has become an invaluable force caring for the youngest and sickest heart patients. Her journey within Norton Children’s tells a story of compassion, strength and purpose. Having been part of Norton Children’s since 1986,…
It’s a phone call pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Deborah J. Kozik, D.O., has received more than 100 times. One of her patients has been waiting months for a new heart. On this morning, a donor heart in another state has become available. There’s little time to waste. Dr. Kozik and the team are on a plane…
A pediatric cardiac surgeon is a doctor with specialized training to perform heart surgery on children. The majority of heart problems requiring surgery on children are congenital heart defects. A skilled pediatric cardiac surgeon is capable of repairing all types of complex heart defects on newborns, babies, young children and teens. Given the complexity of…
Aubrie Chandler loves volleyball. A hitter on her championship team last year, Aubrie, 12, has always wanted to play as the libero, a defensive player in the back row who receives lots of spikes and hard-hit balls. Due to a heart condition and having an abdominal pacemaker, Aubrie has refrained from playing her favorite position…
The transplant nurse clinician at Norton Children’s Hospital got the call on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. It was one that got her heart racing — in a good way. A heart was available for a young patient at Norton Children’s Hospital who had been waiting for nearly a year for a transplant. This news sent…
When Jessica and Jarrod Hogue left Norton Hospital without their newborn, they had no idea what to make of the following days, let alone years. On March 12, 2021, the Hogues welcomed their baby, Hudson, into the world nine weeks early due to a very complex congenital heart defect. As a chronic planner, Jessica had…
As doctors, nurses and staff lined the lobby of Norton Children’s Hospital to say goodbye, Thomas Norris had a big reason to smile. After almost a year of waiting and more than 100 days in the hospital, Thomas left Norton Children’s with a new heart. Thomas, a 9-year-old from Jeffersonville, Indiana, was born with dilated…
Four-year-old Nouri was born with a hole in his heart, a condition that — for babies in the U.S. — usually can be surgically repaired soon after birth. But in Nouri’s home country, Burkina Faso, such lifesaving treatments were not accessible. In fact, the country in West Africa is considered one of the poorest in…
Norton Children’s is celebrating a milestone almost 40 years in the making. Doctors with Norton Children’s Heart Institute performed the hospital’s 100th pediatric heart transplant. The patient, a 9-year-old, is currently recovering. He had been on the transplant waiting list for almost a year. “It’s exciting to reach this milestone,” said Bahaaldin Alsoufi, M.D., chief…