At our Jump Rope for Heart kick-off assembly, Cambridge student Rhiannon told us how the American Heart association helped her.
We at Cambridge are going to jump rope and raise money to donate to the American Heart Association so they can continue to find new operations and tests to help people who have problems with their hearts and to help us all have healthy hearts.My name is Rhiannon. When I was born my heart had a defect called Patent Ductus Arteriosis. That means 2 of the main arteries were not closed properly so the blood could not flow to my heart correctly. When I was 10 months old I went to the University of California hospital in San Francisco to have an operation.
Dr. Tietel put a thin wire up through the vein in my leg all the way to my heart. It had a coil like spring on the end that caught hold of both of the arteries and pulled them together. He had to do it 4 times before it worked. If that procedure wasn't available I would have had to have an open heart surgery or I might not have lived. The operation was invented using money raised by the American Heart Association.
