Crystal Hosey is an energetic and delightful 4-year-old who was born with a heart defect. At first, the hospital pediatrician thought she had a heart murmur, but at Crystal’s one week checkup with her regular pediatrician he thought it was something more serious. After testing, it was determined that Crystal was born with only three of her four heart valves. She underwent her first surgery in July of 2007. Doctors put a conduit (a small tube like piece of plastic) in her heart to replace the valve that was missing. This is a temporary fix and as Crystal grows the conduit will not grow with her, so she will continue to need surgeries.

I am a proud supporter of AHA and with good reason. When I graduated from high school in 2000, I was almost 300 lbs. I was unhealthy, unhappy, and antisocial. I blamed myself for my condition; every diet I tried failed and I took it personally.

There is nothing scarier than to find out your 2 day old infant has 3 heart defects. My name is Sallee and my son Austin was born 5 weeks early on December 21, 2004.  On December 23, 2004, Austin was taken by ambulance to Hershey Medical Center.  He was diagnosed with Coarctation of the Aorta, Ventricular Septal Defect and Bicuspid Aortic Valve. On December 27th, Austin, just 6 days old, underwent his first heart surgery to fix the blockage in his aorta.