Each year, 35,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease occurs in 1 in every 100 births, which means that it’s as common as autism and more prevalent than childhood cancer. CHDs are the most common birth defect in U.S. and there is no cure.
My sweet friend Allie is everything that a friend should be. She has three brilliant, wonderful, hilarious children, Emmy, Ari and Mia, and being their Auntie Amanda is one of the happiest parts of my life. One of Allie’s children, Mia, has an anatomy that is a little different from the others however; and she constantly amazes me.
Mia is seventeen months old and she is incredible. She runs, giggles, yells, babbles and plays. As an outsider looking in, you wouldn’t know that she was born with severe congenital heart defects. You also wouldn’t know that she’s had two open heart surgeries or that she will have another in about a year. The reason you can’t tell that Mia’s heart has scary sounding diagnoses of tricuspid atresia, transposition of the great arteries, and coarctation of the aorta is because over the last three decades surgery and medicine have made phenomenal strides in the treatment of congenital heart disease. If Mia had been born in the early 1980s, she would not be with us today.
At E&B we are more than just a law firm, we are also people that fiercely love our family and friends. My friend Allie and her family are part of my family. On June 28th we will walk as Team Pulse Ox-en in the 2015 Pittsburgh Congenital Heart Walk. The point of this blog is two-fold: to raise awareness of CHD and to ask you to donate. No matter how small the donation, it makes a difference.
These kids and their families who fight CHD are amazing, and they deserve their very best chance. We can help give them that chance, we have to increase funding in medical research to give them that very best chance. A lot has been done already but more needs to happen.
To donate, please visit Team Pulse Ox-en’s Donation Page. Our little asskicker, Mia, thanks you for your generosity in helping kids like her continue to defy expectations and live amazing lives.
Thank you so very much,
Amanda
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