Happy birthday to my heart

In the foyer of the Geraghty house in Bedford, New Hampshire, 20 red heart-shaped balloons and a wall-to-wall banner welcome Erin Geraghty home from college. It’s not her birthday — she’s 21. It’s not her graduation — she’s a first-semester University of New Hampshire senior. And it’s not Valentine’s Day. It’s her 20th year with the same heart. Born with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy — a condition that causes the heart to pump blood inefficiently — Erin received a heart transplant at Boston Children’s Hospital when she was just 1 year old. Her sister Katie, two years her senior, remembers Erin’s frequent visits to the hospital. “We didn’t understand why mom wasn’t with us, but we knew it was important.” Colleen, Katie and Jimmy with baby sister Erin ‘Family’ at the heart of transplant Erin coasted through her childhood with relatively few health issues. “I didn’t live my life that differently,” she says. “I played sports all through high school; I still did everything my peers did. I didn’t understand fully what it meant to have a heart transplant.” We knew how special it was that she was still here. Erin’s older siblings Jimmy, Colleen and Katie were also too young to understand at the time, but the Geraghtys were raised to be informed and involved. They went to all of Erin’s appointments and, steadily, began to grasp the magnitude of Erin’s condition. “We knew how special it was that she was still here,” says K...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Dr. Elizabeth Blume heart transplant Heart transplant program idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy Pediatric Transplant Center (PTC) Source Type: news