This week (February 7 through 14) is Congenital Heart
Disease Awareness Week. It is a campaign to increase public awareness of congenital
heart disease and childhood heart disease. I don’t need a special week to raise
my awareness. I’m already more familiar with CHD than anyone should ever have
to be. Twenty-seven years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with three separate
heart defects, all of which were repaired before her first birthday with open
heart surgery. If she were born with the same problem today, she might come
home with a Band-aid near her groin instead of a scar the length of her chest.
If I sound like I’m complaining, I certainly don’t mean to. Roy Rogers and Dale
Evans had one daughter, Robin Elizabeth, born in 1950. She was very much like
my daughter, including the heart defects. Open-heart surgery wasn't an option
back then, and little Robin never saw her second birthday.
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