Patient Stories

Heather Lowery’s parents were told that she would likely not live to be 3 months old. At 36, Heather has proved them wrong and has set an example for adults living with congenital heart disease.

With wide eyes and a cooing smile, Avery looked up as his mom and dad took turns reading from a Curious George book. Each page made the presence of Avery’s monitors and endless tubes slip further from the Brantleys’ minds. In these moments, they found stillness despite their world spiraling.

In May 2001, Morgan Humphreys turned blue. Until that point, her mother said, Morgan’s birth had been uneventful. After the care team took her newborn to the nursery, Shannon Cockrell waited in her North Carolina hospital room to meet her daughter.

In July 2019, UF Health staff wheeled Maurice (Moe) Ricks into surgery to prep him to receive a new heart and kidney, which were in transport on a plane to Gainesville, Florida. Fate would intervene as the transport team comes face-to-face with a potential life-or-death situation. In an unlikely twist,…

Anthony Macchio was already familiar with UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. After his second daughter, Isabel, was born with a heart defect in February 2019, he and his wife, Amy Hecht Macchio, became accustomed to traveling to Gainesville from Tallahassee for expert pediatric cardiology care. But three months after Isabel…

Cole Dooley, M.D., is no stranger to pediatric cancer. As both a pediatric anesthesiologist and the father of a child with incurable cancer, the realities of childhood cancer have forever changed his life.

How 9-year-old Kendall Lewis navigates life with VACTERL association.

Heather Lowery’s parents were told that she would likely not live to be 3 months old. At 36, Heather has proved them wrong and has set an example for adults living with congenital heart disease.