After trying to get pregnant for five years, Kaitlyn Goff of Nelson County, Kentucky, couldn’t have been more excited to welcome her baby boy into the world. At that point, she knew something was wrong, and doctors confirmed her baby had a heart defect. “It was heartbreaking,” she said. “We finally got pregnant,” Kaitlyn said….
It’s not a matter of how much heart you have, but how much heart you give. That is true for Johnathan Young. He was born with half of a working heart. Johnathan, age 11, is the youngest of Greg and Jill Young’s three children. When Jill had her 20-week pregnancy ultrasound, the clinician noticed something…
Alyssa Claycomb considers her first two children “healthy as horses.” So during her pregnancy with her youngest child, Cayden Horton, the thought of congenital heart disease never entered her mind, let alone a very rare and usually fatal complex heart abnormality. The anatomy scan during her 22-week OB/GYN visit would change everything. Anatomy ultrasound leads…
Caring for children born with complex heart conditions can be challenging and stressful for families. Treatment involves long hospital stays and sometimes multiple open heart surgeries. Being well enough to go home is a big step, and the transition from round-the-clock hospital care to home requires education and close monitoring. These complex conditions such as…
We do not currently have a lot of information about COVID-19 infection in children and adults with congenital heart disease and outcomes. However, based on what is known, we think some patients may be at higher risk of complications. In addition to social distancing, personal hygiene and other measures recommended at KYCOVID19.ky.gov, there are some…
Nicole Pendino has a courageous son. In fact, his nickname is “Courageous Clay.” Many members of his hometown community in Bowling Green, Kentucky, have rallied around him over the past 12 years. In 2017 when Clay’s heart condition worsened and he was added to the heart transplant list, he was literally fighting for his life…
Infant heart transplants are never routine, but for a child who wouldn’t otherwise survive a congenital heart defect, they’ve become much more common. That wasn’t the case 32 years ago when Leslie Keown of Franklin, Kentucky, was born. Transplanting the heart of a days-old baby was almost unheard of, but it was a lifesaving procedure…
One of the rarest and most complicated heart defects found in babies is hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) in which a critical underdevelopment of the left side of the heart leaves the right side doing most of the work. “With hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the left side of the heart can’t effectively pump blood to…
Philmore Jackson III, is a courageous young man whose medical journey has taken many twists and turns. By age 3, Philmore, who goes by P.J., had been near death many times. By many accounts, there wasn’t much hope for him to live to his fourth birthday. Born in 2014 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, P.J. was…
In 1986, Robbie Cardin became Norton Children’s and Kentucky’s first pediatric heart transplant patient. As you can imagine, his plight was covered by the media. Robbie was referred to as “Baby Calvin” to protect his family’s privacy. Robbie was born by cesarean section at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Doctors knew right away something…