Anna was born full term in May of 2001 in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. It was expected that she would need her first open heart surgery immediately following birth but she was born with more heart defects than originally thought, these defects (ASD/VSD's) meant she was able to until she was 3 months old to have her first surgery(bi-directional Glenn), her second and final open heart surgery (Fontan) was when she was 2 years old.
We have 3 older heart healthy children, we wondered what her quality of life would be compared to theirs, would she always be tired, would she run and play? would she be able to go to school? We spent hours on the internet looking for stories of other children like her, we found very few. Much has changed in the last ten years, the internet has become a great source of support and information for children and parents dealing with chd's and amazing advances has been made in treatments, surgeries and options for children like Anna, sadly there is still so much to be done, congenital heart defects continue to be responsible for more deaths in the first year of life than any other defect.
Everyday new families are given the same information we were and are asking the same questions we did, Anna wanted to make this video for them. Anna is 10 now, she only has half a heart but she is so strong, beautiful and amazing half is all she needs. Hers is the positive story you are looking for:
Go here to watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyJuub9cYI&feature=share
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