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…
Pediatric cardiologist Sarah J. Wilkens, M.D., MPH, has trained to care for the sickest children — heart failure and transplant patients. “Ultimately what motivates me are the patients and trying to support their families in these difficult situations,” Dr. Wilkens said. Equally important, she said, is seeing her patients as they grow up — then…
The heart condition of mitral valve prolapse, also known as floppy valve syndrome, involves two flaps in a heart valve that don’t close smoothly or evenly. The condition, which requires monitoring once diagnosed, affects 2% of the population, and most don’t even know they are living with it. “Mitral valve prolapse, also known as Barlow…
Trent Robinson was rushed to Norton Children’s Hospital by ambulance from a nearby hospital just after being delivered by emergency cesarean section in March 2018. “He was turning blue. I got to see him for a split second as I was lying on the operating table,” said Brooklynn Robinson, Trent’s mother. Trent was diagnosed with…
In the theater world, there are two basic rules: Don’t say “Macbeth” in a theater, and the show must go on. But what if you’ve gone in for your annual heart checkup and learned you need an aortic valve surgery to treat aortic regurgitation? It was a reality that 27-year-old Clayton Bliss found himself in…
Fewer children than adults have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of children who have been diagnosed, most haven’t been very sick. Some children had cold symptoms, and we know that some children who have tested positive for the coronavirus have had no symptoms at all. However, over the last couple of weeks in the U. S….
So far in the COVID-19 pandemic, data from China, Italy and other European countries showed that coronavirus infections were much less common in children than adults. When children did get sick with the virus, they didn’t become as sick. However, in late April, reports of children with hyperinflammatory symptoms emerged in England. Now, New York…
Deborah J. Kozik, D.O., didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, she describes her family as blue-collar and her mother as someone who influenced her to swing for the fences, to aim high without regard to expected gender roles. She became a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon who specializes…
Molly Bostic will soon be dancing in honor of her 18-month-old nephew who has undergone two heart surgeries at Norton Children’s Hospital. His first lifesaving surgery took place when he was just 3 days old. Molly will dance from 8 p.m. to midnight on March 20, as part of Western Kentucky University’s Dance Big Red,…
To look at Samantha Stallings today as an active, working adult, you would never know that she’s been fighting for her health all 27 of her years. Her journey with Norton Children’s began the day she was born six weeks premature and transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Norton Children’s Hospital. Now…
The first patients have moved into the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Critical Care Unit (CICU) at Norton Children’s Hospital. More than 60 staff members lined the hallway to welcome the first patient and the caregivers who will be working on the unit. “This is a very exciting day,” said Deanna R. Todd Tzanetos, M.D., medical director…
Ace Graham soon will celebrate his second birthday, an accomplishment that most families take for granted. But for his parents, T.J. and Allie Graham, and his extended family, each day is a blessing, and nothing is taken for granted. Ace was born March 22, 2018, and everything appeared fine. He was healthy, and within a…