Team members within The Heart Center at Children’s Health often know first-hand what it’s like to face the challenges that come along with a heart diagnosis.
After living through their own struggles and treatments since they were born, Melanie Walsh, Lisa Vera, and Rebekah Owen are just a few heroes who have experienced their own diagnoses and are now giving families newfound hope.
Owen is a nurse practitioner in the Cardiovascular ICU at Children's. She was born with a hole in her heart. That led to multiple operations as a child, before undergoing an open heart operation in 2017.
"I can both relate as a child being followed by a cardiologist, and as an adult," Owen said.
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And the fact that she's come through to live a normal life on the other side can encourage families.
"I think it's helpful to see people who have walked that story themselves," Owen said, "And be able to see there's life on the other side of it, and you do go on to live a normal life."
Walsh, a registered nurse on the inpatient cardiology floor at Children's, was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, and says that cardiology is her "first love and hate."
Her first Fontan procedure failed. She was put on ECMO and peritoneal dialysis to see if her kidneys would recover.
"Everything didn't go as we had hoped or planned," Walsh said. "So I can provide that hope when everything doesn't go as expected."
Today she lives a very normal life.
Meanwhile, Vera, who is a registered nurse on the inpatient cardiology floor at Children's, was born with 10 different heart defects, and had four open heart surgeries.
"I just feel blessed to work in a place that helped heal me as a kid," Vera said. "I feel blessed to work with heart warriors who went through what I went through and are now just rocking it out in life!"
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