At The HEARTest Yard, we’re here to support families navigating the challenges of parenting children with congenital heart disease. We offer a range of no-cost services, including in-home nursing care, therapy and more, that are tailored to your needs. Our mission is to improve survival rates, enhance life expectancy and provide compassionate support throughout your journey.
“My husband and I welcomed our son, Cove, into the world on May 31, 2020. Two days after giving birth we learned about his heart condition: Pulmonary Aorta (PA) Window and several ASDs and VSDs. Three weeks later, at Levine Children’s Hospital, we handed him over to the surgical team to have open heart surgery, giving him a second chance at life. We knew growing our family would have risks due to my husband also having a heart condition: Single Ventricle, Pulmonary Stenosis and Transposition of the Greater Arteries. He has had five open heart and over 15 minor surgeries, so this crazy heart world wasn’t new to us, but experiencing it as a first-time parent was.
“Having The HEARTest Yard Foundation during our time in and out of the hospital truly made a difference. They were able to set us up with an at-home nurse, making us feel more comfortable being discharged. Fast forward to two years later, The HEARTest Yard continues to help us connect with families like us or that have been through similar experiences. We can’t thank them enough for all that they do in the heart community.”
It was the 2012 NFL off-season when the Olsen family received the surprise of a lifetime.
In January of that year, Greg and his wife Kara found out they were unexpectedly expecting. Happiness overwhelmed their hearts. A month later, they learned Kara was carrying not one, but two, bundles of joy. They were ecstatic.
Soon they received news that rocked their family to the core. One of the babies would be perfectly healthy, while the other would be born with a severe congenital heart defect.
Kara and Greg faced all the emotion, challenges and decisions that are only known by parents of severely sick children. They instantly decided that they were going to give the baby the best chance at life, providing him access to the best doctors, state-of-the art treatment, techniques and technology. Because so much of their life revolves around football, they called this phase of their new son’s life “T.J.’s HEARTest Yard.”
Together with Levine Children’s Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center (now Atrium), they made it happen. The Olsens and Levine Children’s collaborated to establish The HEARTest Yard initiative, a family service program administered by Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte. The cutting-edge program provides families of babies affected by congenital heart disease with a multitude of services including in-home, private nursing care, physical therapy and speech therapy, among other benefits.
The HEARTest Yard assists families as they settle into their new lives as parents of children with congenital heart disease. The services are deducted from a predetermined medical benefit and are used at the family’s discretion. The program is intended to be an extension of the world-class medical care offered at Levine Children’s Hospital.
The HEARTest Yard provides these services to families at no charge, while incurring no additional expense to the hospital. The goal of the program is to improve the interstage mortality rate and increase life expectancy and long-term prognosis for pediatric heart patients.
Greg and Kara have a lot to share about Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and are passionate about assisting other families affected by congenital heart disease. You’re invited to join them in their pursuit to give pediatric heart babies a second chance at life.
The HEARTest Yard program is a part of Receptions for Research: The Greg Olsen Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and was established in 2013 as the first and only family support and service program for pediatric cardiovascular patients and their families in the Carolinas.
