Instead of receiving presents for my high school graduation, I would like everyone to make a donation to the Hannah Theiss Endowed Fund in Congenital Heart Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital. Let me tell you why.  

I have been a patient of Texas Children’s Heart Center since before I was born. I have a significant heart defect that has so far required three surgeries (at 10 days, 7 months, and 4 years old).  Without the work of the doctors and staff at the Heart Center, I would not be alive to be telling this story right now. My situation is not unique. One out of every one hundred children born worldwide have some kind of heart defect. Heart defects are the #1 cause of babies not living to their first birthday and take more lives than childhood cancers.

While I was in the hospital following my second surgery, my family started an endowed fund in my name at Texas Children’s Hospital. This fund specifically supports the Congenital Heart Surgery program. Money raised for this fund goes toward research that will help improve surgical outcomes that will ultimately lead to longer life expectancies for CHD patients.  A gift to this work is more valuable than any graduation gift I could receive.

Finally, I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me and my family over the last eighteen years.