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Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Warming Hearts: Blanket Drive For Young Cardiac Patients

NJ's Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week closes, along with a local blanket drive, on Thursday

There is a small, hand-made quilt that lies at the foot of Christopher Olivadotti’s bed. He’s had it since he left the hospital after his first open-heart surgery, the one he had when he was just two days old. Christopher is 9 years old now. He’s survived three more surgeries to mend his heart from a complicated defect. And there will doubtless be more turns in the cardiac unit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where a kindly stranger nearly a decade ago was moved to acknowledge his fight for a lifetime with a small token – a little warm comfort for someone so small who had already seen so much. It’s a kindness that Christopher’s mother, Alexandra Scheininger, is trying to spread around for other veterans of the hospital’s cardiac …

a jacob

9:42 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013

We run this every year starting in January. If you email me your address at yankiefann@comcast.net I can send you a reminder for next year. Also if you are a fan of Facebook we do have a page so if you like it, you will get reminders and updates https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blankets-For-Love/235435429922301?ref=hl   more ›

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Giving Back, Paying Forward: Area Woman Collecting Blankets For Tiny Heart Patients

Collection sites throughout Monmouth County, several in Wall

Christopher Olivadotti was just 2 days old when he had his first open heart surgery. There would be three more before he was out of toddlerhood. Christopher is a survivor. He’s now 9 years old — one of the lucky ones who survived a complex and rare heart defect called Right Hypoplastic Right Heart syndrome, a condition where the right side of the heart is underdeveloped. There is a small tribute to his strength that lays at the foot of his bed, his mother says. It’s a quilt, a small hand-made token of admiration from a stranger moved to acknowledge the fight for a lifetime undertaken by an infant she, or he, had never met. The blanket was given to Christopher upon leaving the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where the young boy …

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