Willow Springs third-grader shares heart experiences

It wasn’t meant to be a heart-to-heart.Or maybe it was.

Willow Springs third-grader Josh Jackson has undergone several heart surgeries, including open heart surgery, in his nine-year life.

But when his parents saw the announcement about the “Straight to the Heart” symposium featuring the world’s largest walk-through inflatable heart on display in South Jordan, they thought it was a great opportunity for Josh and about 100 third-grade students.

“It was a lot of fun,” Josh’s mother Christina Jackson said. “Many people know what he’s gone through, but this is a way they can connect with him and he can share and make others more aware of his experience.”

Josh, who first told his classmates about his condition as a preschooler at the American Heart Association’s Jump for Heart event, knows he was born with a congenital heart defect, Jackson said.

“We didn’t know that he had that until he was born and that eventually he will need a heart transplant,” Jackson said. “He had surgery within 10 days and again at four months. There were lots of tears.”

Jackson said the surgeries are performed in stages to allow him to grow. He also had surgery at age 3.

“He understands he has a special heart and has to cope with that,” she said. “He remembers being in the hospital, and he still goes in for catherizations, echocardiograms and other procedures. He monitors himself and knows when he has to rest, but otherwise, we’ve been lucky and he’s out there with everyone else playing and having fun.”

Josh said he plays flag football and baseball without any troubles.

As a special honor, Josh received an invitation at school from two “Snow Fairies” for his parents and him to attend the Heart Center Charity Ball Dec. 10 at the Grand America and to be a special guest of Paul Cardall.

The Paul Cardall Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to educating patients and families suffering from heart disease, also supported the interactive heart display.

“They talked about my half-heart and heart surgery and stuff,” Josh said. “The best part was when we walked into the heart and they showed us all the parts inside and where any damage was.”

Josh said he even learned some names of the parts of the heart he didn’t know before.

His mother said that as students wiggled through the inflatable walls of the heart chambers in small groups, a host explained the blood flow, how the heart works and where the arteries come into the heart and answered students’ questions.

Josh’s family paid for the school bus to take the entire third grade to the exhibit Nov. 17, his grandmother and Willow Springs Principal Sharyle Karren said.