Saturday, January 7, 2017


Please Help Support “Hannah’s Big Heart”

Hannah’s Big Heart is a children’s picture book about an eight year old girl who has open heart surgery. My eight year old daughter (Hannah) and I are co-writing “Hannah’s Big Heart” to help other children who are facing heart surgery. Hannah wants to share her open heart surgery experiences in a way that will help other children feel more comfortable by having a better understanding of what to expect on the day of their surgery. The book is named “Hannah’s Big Heart” for two reasons 1) because Hannah (Sweet Pea) Spain is a very selfless and compassionate person and 2) because Hannah’s congenital heart defect (Atrial Septal Defect) caused her heart to enlarge.

Hannah and I have become amateur heart defect advocates. We are dedicated to educating parents of the dangers of congenital heart defects being misdiagnosed or over-looked by pediatricians as Hannah’s condition was misdiagnosed. For years we were told that Hannah only had a small heart arrhythmia (that would most likely repair itself, in time) and that was not the case. During Hannah eight year old checkup (with a new pediatrician) we discovered that Hannah actually had an Atrial Septal Defect and it turned out that the hole in Hannah’s Heart was quite large and we were told by a pediatric cardiologist that if Hannah’s Atrial Septal Defect was not repaired while she was young it would cause permanent and irreversible heart damage. After Hannah’s open heart surgery the pediatric cardiovascular surgeon told us that by having her open heart surgery when we did we increase Hannah life expectancy by thirty years.

On December 22 2016 Hannah had open heart surgery to repair an Atrial Septal Defect, the surgery went well and she was released from the hospital on Christmas day. The surgery took about three and a half hours and Hannah was on a heart-lung bypass machine for twenty seven minutes. Her sternum was wired and she received three layers of stitches to close the incision. She had a chest tube (to drain the blood around her heart) and three IVs.

I would like to thank everyone who prayed for Hannah, because God guided the surgeon’s hands and blessed Hannah with a proficient procedure. Her pain was well managed and she is recovering very well. I have nothing but good things to say about the hospital, the surgeon and the nursing staff at Riley Hospital for Children (Indianapolis). I was truly impressed with the medical professionalism and the compassionate care that they provided. I would also like to thank everyone who cared enough to help us with their financial gifts. Because of your generosity I have been about to get a handle on my bills and was able to provide Hannah with some Christmas gifts.

Hannah is a beautiful little girl (both inside and out). She is a straight-A student, and she is one of the most caring and selfless children in the world. She loves to sing, dance, and practice gymnastics. She enjoys reading and watching (mostly Barbie and princesses themed) movies, and is a HUGE fan of Taylor Swift. Hannah has a younger sister, two older brothers and a mother and father who all love her very much.  To learn more about Hannah and her family visit: Hannah's Blog or her Facebook Care Page.

Please help Hannah achieve her dream of publishing her book “Hannah’s Big Heart”. The book will be self-published so that we can maintain the rights, and so that we can publish and distribute the book immediately. It is our goal to publish and begin distributing Hannah’s Big Heart by the end of February. After the initial phase of production the book will be available on Amazon, in bookstores, and hospital gift shops. Our main expenses are for the illustration, editing, the actual printing and the marketing of the book. We’ve decided that ten percent (10%) of all book sales of Hannah’s Big Heart will go to a special fund to help low income families with children who have heart defects or heart diseases and require surgery.

Thank you for taking the time to read about Hannah and her upcoming book “Hannah’s Big Heart. To learn more about Hannah please visit

Receive a free signed copy of Hannah’s Big Heart with any donation of $50.00 or more.

PLEASE share Hannah’s story with others and help us get the word out. 


PLEASE share Hannah’s other blog link:

No comments:

Post a Comment