HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect in the U.S., affecting nearly 1% of births every year.
That’s why Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood started a special program to comfort families facing what can be a life-threatening diagnosis.
When Ebony Coleman gave birth to her daughter Lyric she already knew she was facing an uphill battle.
An ultrasound early on in her pregnancy revealed lyric had a congenital defect called right hypoplastic heart syndrome.
“It was hard it was hard because knowing my babies previous, my two older daughters did not have this issue so of course, I was scared because I was like what can I do out here,” Coleman said.
Dr. Tarah Popp, a pediatric imaging specialist, said, “The fetal patients that come to see us are coming because their pediatrician or their neonatologist has a concern about the baby’s heart.”
In an effort to make the experience less nerve-wracking for parents, Popp and her lead stenographer at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital came up with the idea of creating a permanent recording of the baby’s heartbeat in a small device.
“We started just experimenting with this and we made a few of those and we thought well this is kind of nice, it’s heart-shaped, but we thought what if it was in a stuffed animal of some sort, like a bear,” Popp said.
That ultimately led to a collaboration with the company Just Play Cares, which is behind the well-known Build-A-Bear, and a donation of 300 “Heartbeat Bears.”
“The look on the patient’s face is worth it in itself. We’ve had families tell us the older sibling has been sleeping with the bear prior to delivery or also in cases where there’s a bad outcome and the baby didn’t make it. We’ve had families that have lost a baby and hold onto the bear and this is a very important memento of a child that unfortunately they had a very short time period with,” Popp said.
Little Lyric underwent surgery to put a stent in her heart.
Coleman is holding on to hope for the future, and her Heartbeat Bear.
“I appreciate it so much they took the time out for me and my baby and my family, put it that way. It’s just like a connection, these people, it’s like another family of mine,” Coleman said.
Since the program began in the fall of 2021, the hospital has handed out 150 of the 300 bears donated by Just Play Cares.
They hope to expand the program in the future.