We Support

Needs of the Heart

Jessie’s Heart provides financial support to those needing assistance with transportation, lodging, food, daycare, and other unexpected expenses. We believe that by reducing the family’s financial burdens, parents can focus on the care and well-being of their child.

We support the multidisciplinary collaboration of Social Workers, Child Life Specialists, Pediatric Psychologists, and Chaplains in the support of CHD families.

Desires of the Heart

We fulfill dreams for cardiac children. Working with the hospital’s care team, we learn about the children’s wishes and gift them through Jessie’s Heart’s Desires of the Heart program.  

Jessie’s Heart captures the stories of families whose kids have been diagnosed with heart conditions. A personal book is designed for them that displays family pictures and stories of their emotional journey.
16-month-old Rowan was born with 4 heart defects.
She has already undergone three open heart surgeries, with the first one on her third day of life. She received a bi-ventricular repair in 2017 and is now living at a normal oxygenation. Her conduit will need to be replaced as she grows and will be under a lifetime of medical surveillance.

Rowan’s parents are happy to share that she lives a normal and very happy life now as a sassy little lady. Her absolute favorite animal is a horse, and she loves the rocking horse gifted by Jessie’s Heart

Hope for the Holidays Families

Sponsored by Jessie’s Heart Fund

OMARIA

Prior to being nominated for the Hope for the Holidays program, Omaria’s family had been through many months of terrifying medical challenges. Born in late October of 2021 with several significant heart defects, including transposition of the greater arteries, pulmonary atresia, and ventricular septal defect, Omaria had multiple invasive diagnostic catheterizations and surgeries and had many cardiac arrest episodes, finally requiring a 4-day ECMO support period. Omaria spent a total of four months at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and was discharged home on a G-tube and weekly cardiac monitoring, with the prospect of additional future surgeries.

During this period, Omaria’s mom Viola had to quit her job to travel from their home in Greeley, where the family has a 5-year-old special needs sibling, in order to be at the hospital to support her baby. The family struggled with many financial concerns and Jessie’s Heart Fund helped to support them with gas and grocery gift cards, two months of rent, and shipping special formula to the baby during the height of the formula shortage last year. The family continues to travel to Denver frequently, as Omaria is seen at the RMHC feeding clinic as well as the cardiology office.

Omaria’s family was nominated for Hope for the Holidays in November of 2022, and Jessie’s Heart Fund was the family’s sponsor for this program. During the month of December, the family received another rent payment, gifts for Omaria, her brother, mother, and father, and gift cards for additional gas and grocery support. The family requested an annual pass to the Denver Aquarium as their family experience gift.

Omaria is scheduled for a consult with the RMHC Congenital Heart Center surgeon, Dr. Turner, in February, and it is anticipated that she will be recommended for an additional surgery in the spring. Viola has expressed enormous gratitude for the assistance she has received, and has a consistently sunny outlook on her life, often saying that “Everything happens for a reason!” This family has been hugely embraced by the staff at RMHC as well as at the Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation, and we are so grateful to Jessie’s Heart Fund for allowing us to provide them extensive support during this super challenging 18-months and beyond.

CAELYNN

Caelynn is a two-year-old girl born with multiple congenital diagnoses, and her mother Christen was supported by the Maternal Fetal Health Navigation team during her pregnancy. Caelynn’s cardiac issues include Tetralogy of Fallot, MAPCAS, and right aortic arch, ASD and VSD (surgically closed with a tissue patch) and pulmonary artery reconstruction complicated by a need for ECMO support, resulting in acute kidney damage requiring dialysis and a multi-month hospital stay. Additionally, she has hypothyroidism, motor and growth delays, many food allergies, and multiple orthopedic challenges. Caelynn’s family also lives many miles from RMHC, in Weld County, and the travel back and forth to the hospital as well as the purchase of specialized food for Caelynn significantly challenged the family’s finances. She has recently undergone foot surgery and is expected to need additional cardiac surgeries and interventions.

When Caelynn’s family was nominated for the Hope for the Holidays Program, it was written that “Nurse Navigation and Social Work feel as if this family has done an amazing job navigating the medical system, coping with medical trauma, and adjusting to life with chronic illness.” In
our interview with mom Christen for the Hope for the Holidays program this year, she expressed her gratitude at being considered. They are amazed at the progress that Caelynn has made and are anxious about upcoming surgeries, but also hopeful that she will overcome them as she has in the past. For their Hope for the Holidays sponsorship, the family were supported with a month of their mortgage payment, as well as one month of their utilities bill. Gifts were purchased for Caelynn, her brother, mother, and father. Mom requested gift cards to support a date night with her husband, as the opportunity to spend time as a couple is a rare thing for them. For their family experience gift, we purchased tickets for all of them to attend the April performance of Disney on Ice in Loveland. We additionally provided gas and grocery gift cards.

When asked what she hoped for on behalf of the family for the coming year, the nominating social worker wrote, “I hope that Caelynn will continue to improve and meet milestones and that this holiday the family can celebrate the life of their child who is now healthy enough to play with her brother.”

Thanks so much to the Jessie’s Heart Fund for sponsoring this lovely child and her family!