6岁的孩子出生时就有心脏缺陷. 这是她父母每晚对她说的话.

When Stephanie Jenness found out she was pregnant with her third child, 她和她的丈夫, 丹, 是狂喜的. They started preparing for life as a family of five, even purchasing a minivan.

斯蒂芬妮的怀孕相当顺利. There was a brief scare when a test showed a possible problem with the baby's chromosomes. 然而，事实证明这是一场虚惊. 当婴儿科里被送到罗德岛的一家医院时, 她通过了所有的新生儿检查, 尽管体重只有4磅, 11盎司.

在产科病房, Stephanie was enjoying some snuggles and early bonding with Corey when a nurse visited them. 护士注意到科里的牙龈和指甲都是蓝色的. 她把新生儿带到育婴室作进一步观察.

很快，斯蒂芬妮就被推进了会议室. Doctors broke the news: Corey was born with tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia – a complex congenital heart defect.

Four hours ago, her baby was healthy, Stephanie thought to herself. But now, Corey needed to be transferred to a hospital in Boston. Stephanie and 丹 looked at their helpless infant in her hospital cot, 穿着小衣服，戴着南瓜帽. (那是2017年10月.他们所能做的就是哭泣、祈祷和祈祷最好的结果.

科里在5天大的时候做了第一次心脏直视手术. 她花了一个月才恢复健康，可以回家了.

本应成为里程碑的事情却没有发生. 科里很快就少喝酒多睡觉了. By the time Stephanie and 丹 took her back to the hospital, her oxygen level was dangerously low. Both these issues stemmed from her needing a new pulmonary valve.

因为她吃得不好，科里被插上了喂食管. Her low oxygen resulted in her being hooked up to oxygen full time.

Corey was on both a feeding tube and oxygen from January until August 2018. That's when her medical team said she'd need another heart surgery to put a valve in.

手术产生了巨大的影响. Corey began showing interest in food, laughing and babbling to her brothers, Wyatt and Jacob.

Corey's improvement was so profound that Stephanie and 丹 felt like they were no longer in "survival mode."

多年来, as Corey starts to acknowledge and understand that she has a heart condition and she's different, 她为自己的伤疤感到骄傲,斯蒂芬妮说.

Now 6, Corey wakes up every day to a photo of herself on her bedroom wall. In it, she's in a hospital cot with a hole in her chest and tubes and bandages galore.

“他们治好了我的心，”科里说.

That strong heart is something Corey and her parents think about every night.

在穿上她最喜欢的睡衣之后, brushing her teeth and crawling into bed for one of her favorite bedtime stories – picture books about heart defect survivors – Corey hears affirmations from the ones who love her most.

“我们总是在晚上祈祷的时候说, “你很坚强。, 你很勇敢, 你是美丽的, 你很强大,’”斯蒂芬妮说。. "She knows she's different from her peers, but she's still a strong and powerful little girl. 我想让她永远知道这一点. I don't ever want her to see her heart defect as a disability; I want her to use it as a strength."

发自内心的故事 chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.