Young People Stories

Diagnosed with a heart murmur at age 11, Evan found courage and community through Hunt with Heart’s outdoor programs.

Born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Broghan discovered strength she never knew she had through HWH.

Hope found friendship, purpose, and joy through outdoor experiences that helped her see beyond her diagnosis.

“Hey guys! My name is Kenna Mae Horton! I got diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) in 2012. I was in third grade at the time. At that point my cardiologist was aware that I had the gene for HCM but I was still allowed to participate on my traveling basketball team. My family went to Mayo that next year and

“Hello, my name is Dustin Fontenot, and I am a true country boy.  I love anything outside- hunting, fishing, welding, working with my animals and working on cars. On January 15th, just one day after my 15th birthday I received a gift no one wants for their birthday, and that was a cancer diagnosis.  Saturday, January 14th, 2017 was just

Grant was born in Singapore. We found out shortly after his birth he had a heart murmur and his diagnosis quickly escalated to needing an immediate coarctation repair.  We made the decision to stay in Singapore for his surgery rather than risk flying back to the United States. Grant’s surgery was successful and we moved backed to Texas about 6

Gavin Morgan wasn’t born yet when doctors diagnosed him with a large ventricular septal defect (VSD), a hole in the wall of the ventricle of his heart. His parents, Wade and Heather were referred to a team of prenatal specialists at Texas Children’s Hospital who kept a close eye on her and Gavin for the remainder of her pregnancy. At

William was born August 25, 2006 with a combination of congenital heart defects referred to as Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome, which is fatal within the first weeks of life without surgical intervention. William had his first open-heart surgery at five days old. After leaving the hospital at two months old, we quickly headed back for a second open-heart surgery at

Joshua was born on August the 17th, 1994.  He was diagnosed a day later having a single ventricle and a narrowing in his aorta.  His first open heart surgery was a week later.   He has had a total of 7 open heart surgeries to date.   God has brought him back to life twice after his heart stopped beating.   He is

Kaston was born on November 22, 2002 in Amarillo, TX.  He was diagnosed with Tricuspid Atresia when he was 1 day old.  All of his cardiac care has been at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas up until the last few months.  He had his Glenn at 6 months old and his Fontan at 22 months old.  Then he had a

Conner was born in 2002 with a congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. His diagnosis was made about 24 hours after birth when he was life flighted to Houston. He was very quickly transferred into the care of TX Children’s Hospital. At 5 days old, he had his first surgery called the Norwood, and then another surgery at

I’m Kyle Rayburn I’m 22 years old. I was born July 23, 1996, with hypo-plastic left heart syndrome. I’ve had numerous open-heart surgeries and heart catheterizations starting from just a few weeks old. When I was 7, I was also diagnosed with PLE (Protein losing Enteropathy). Finally, on November 22, 2014 I was blessed with a new heart. Now I

Hayden was born 7 weeks premature weighing in at 4 lbs ½ an ounce on June 5, 2002. The delivery room nurse mentioned a heart murmur prior to his birth. Hayden was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis the day after he was born. He had his first heart catheterization balloon at 8 days old and his first open heart surgery

Alex was born March 1, 2002 at a local Texas hospital about 4 weeks early. I wasn’t able to hold him yet since he had to go get checked because his murmur was louder then normal. He had an echo done and that’s when they came with the news. He was born with several defects to his heart, the main

Colman was born March 30, 2004 with a combination of congenital heart defects known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which is fatal within the first week of life without surgical intervention. Colman’s first open-heart surgery, the Norwood Procedure, was performed when he was just three days old. Then he underwent his second open-heart surgery at four months old and his

My name is Jakob Cobucci or aka “Swamp Donkey”. I got my nick name from my first memorable trip to Hunt with Heart’s Camp Beaver Creek. I was born on May 22, 2000.  I was a very energetic child, very athletic, and never met a stranger.  In October 2013, I was in a bull riding competition when a bull stepped on

Charles was born 6 weeks premature.  He is our miracle IVF baby!  When he was 3 days old, they found his heart problems.  We were referred to Texas Children’s when Charles was around two months old.  Texas Children’s did all kinds of testing and told us Charles has Tetralogy of Fallot and 2 heart murmurs.    They did surgery when he

Hi my name is Anthony and sometimes I like to be called Ace. I was born at 35 weeks in Houston, TX with a combination of four congenital abnormalities. These defects, which affect the structure of the heart is called Tetralogy of Fallot. Tetralogy of Fallot is a rare, complex heart defect that occurs in about 5 out of every

“Zak was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the age of 4, and we were told that he wouldn’t make it to his teen years. In fact, the doctor said, “Don’t blame yourself, you have done everything that you can.” The disease was handed down by his father, and while we knew he had the same disease, we weren’t aware of

On June 21, 1996, we became the proud parents of a 7 lb 10 oz baby boy. When we got home our Ricky Jr. was a good baby. He was a big eater- drinking 3 ounces every two hours. Two weeks passed when suddenly on our way home from my parent’s house, our Ricky Jr. began to cry, and I

Brady was born with a congenital heart defect called aortic stenosis. He was clinging to life when he was medically flown to Texas Children’s Hospital in June of 2005. It wasn’t long when the Doctor’s at TCH knew that Brady’s only chance of survival would be a complete Heart Transplant. He was quickly placed on the transplant list. His little

The day Raymond was born was full of commotion, anticipation and excitement. they were late getting me in to the delivery room Velinda was not doing so good cause her blood pressure was up high and they could not get it down, they brought me into the room and once she knew I was there her pressure started coming down,

Kooper was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in 2012 just 2 weeks after his brother, Case, was diagnosed. HCM is a genetic disease causing the walls of the heart to abnormally thicken. As with many heart conditions, pulling all competitive sports and activities is the first thing they did. Kooper was diagnosed the same week he was going to start his

On May 29, 2005, we welcomed our son, Braden James, into the world. We thought we had welcomed a perfectly healthy baby boy into our family but about 24 hours after his birth all that changed. At one day old, Braden was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). HLHS is a congenital heart defect where the left side of

At 20 weeks gestation Shepherd was diagnosed with Heterotaxy Syndrome. This condition is so rare there is not a birth rate associated with it. He was born via scheduled Caesarean section so that a team of cardiologists and surgeons were present and able to provide immediate medical intervention. His first open heart surgery was at seventy two hours of age

My name is Nicholas Pelham and I was born here in Texas on March 07, 2001. When I was three years old my family and I moved to Hiawassee, Georgia but a year later we returned to Cypress, Texas. While in sixth grade, during a sports physical, a benign heart arrhythmia (heart murmur) was discovered. I was followed by a

Born the fourth child into the Leal family, Remington arrived at 6:09 the morning of July 16, 2002 in McAllen, TX. After an uneventful pregnancy, following three siblings into the world, nothing could have prepared his parents for what was to follow. He struggled immediately upon birth. His little chest looked like it couldn’t contain his enlarged heart which heaved

“Cheyann’s heart journey began when I was 5 months pregnant with her. I went to my first ultrasound appointment. My husband was working and could not get off that day, so I went by myself, and had them record it for me. While I was watching the screen, the ultrasound technician did not say much, everything seemed normal. Since this

“I was born in June 2002, and although small in size appeared perfectly healthy. At 3 days old, Dr. Dreyer and staff greeted my parents in the NICU with different news and plans. I was born with congenital heart disease known as Tetrology of Fallot, which is 4 different heart defects: VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect), Pulmonary Stenosis, Right ventricular hypertrophy

“I was born on March 7th, 1996, in Albany, New York. A few day later I would undergo my first surgery for my heart as my parents sat worried in the waiting room. The first few years of my life were stressful for my parents until I had my last open heart surgery, the second fontan surgery, at 3 years

Michael was born was Transposition of the Greater Arteries (TGA) in 1995. In 2006, he had a bypass surgery and he currently is doing great! “Hunt with Heart helped me have a second chance as to knowing that I’m not the only one out there that has this condition.” -Michael

I am a nineteen-year-old girl with congenital heart disease. When I was born my parents had no idea I had heart defects. It was not until the next day when the doctors and nurses swept me away to have my first heart catheterization procedure that they found out that I had congenital heart defects – pulmonary atresia with VSD and

Isaac has endured 3 open heart surgeries, several heart catherizations, 2 hip surgeries and 2 leg surgeries.

Victoria “Tori” Tomson was born on August 20, 2004. Prior to her birth she was diagnosed with multiple heart defects which included Double Outlet Right Ventricle with Transposed Great Arteries, Mitral Atresia, Multiple ASDs and VSDs. A plan was put in place by Texas Children’s Hospital’s doctors to add a Pulmonary Artery band and perform an Atrial Septectomy immediately after

I was born with multiple congenital heart defects , which included, Ventricular Septal Defect, which is commonly referred to as a hole in the heart, (which I had several ) Pulmonary Stenosis which obstructs blood flow from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery & Supraventricular tachycardia. which is a rapid heart rate. It was at 2 weeks old that

I was born with a rare disease, pulmonary hypertension. The type is called pulmonary veno occlusive disease, which is the most rare of any. I didn’t know I had this disease until, slowly I got to where I couldn’t run or be active without loosing all my breath. I grew up an athlete and in high school, I had to

Jordan was born on May 29, 1993 with multiple congenital heart defects, which included, pulmonary atresia, ASD/VSD, second degree heart block, transposition of the great vessels and dextrocardia. The cardiologists knew the day he was born that he would eventually need a heart transplant. Two of Jordan’s heart defects would need to be corrected right away so three days after

“In March of 2012, I was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy. This means my heart was dangerously enlarged and the only way to fix it was a heart transplant. While all of my friends were planning what summer camps they wanted to attend, my mom and I had to up root our lives in our small town and move to a

Logan was born January 31, 2000 and had an uneventful first year of life. It wasn’t until he turned 1 year and 1 week old that he became very sick and was referred to a cardiologist for an enlarged heart. His family was told that his heart was only functioning at a13% ejection fraction. He immediately started intensive treatment plans