Unexpectedly, Hartley was not only diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome but also with congenital heart failure; basically Hartley’s heart had 2 holes in it that needed to be repaired or she would not live past 18 months of age. Our family was fortunate enough to locate the best surgeons to repair her heart. Hartley’s surgery was successfully completed on December 27, 2010 and she has been perfect ever
since. However, this is not the case for many families around the world who have children with similar heart conditions. They are sometimes unable to afford the surgery or, in most cases, unable to find physicians in their country who are properly trained to perform the surgery; as a result the parents, sadly, watch their child die. With this as our catalyst, we decided to establish a foundation to reach out into the world and fix one heart at a time. Hartley’s Heart Foundation is a non-profit organization which was created on March 24, 2011. The primary goal is to organize and fund medical mission trips to countries that are without pediatric heart surgeons and medical teams in place to perform this necessary surgery. Hartley’s Foundation will fund these trips with an additional emphasis on the education of local physicians and surgical teams so that those physicians and surgical teams will continue on with these lifesaving surgeries without assistance.