Newborns at a local hospital are starting life with an extra dose of love. They're sporting hand knitted beanies to spread awareness through "Little hats, Big Hearts."
Amy and her 5-day-old newborn, Charlie, were presented with a red beanie by their nurse. Amy said she hopes Charlie will be "A future Incarnate Word graduate just like his mama."
He's got little feet, little hands, and a little head, but that beanie is all about big hearts and spreading awareness about heart health. "Congenital heart disease or heart birth defects are present in .8% of the patient population," Dr. Richard Lorber, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Children's Hospital of San Antonio, said.
Brock Miller from Air Med International added, "Each year, there are more than 7,000 children who suffer out of hospital sudden cardiac arrests."
That's why Air Med International and the American Heart Association are teaming up to get the word out, and the hats on the heads of newborns. "We have hundreds of volunteers that do this around San Antonio to donate their time, they donate their resources and the hats to families to cause awareness for congenital heart disease in infants," Christa Gregory of the American Heart Association said.
One of those volunteers is Rita Berry. "My husband passed away five years ago from sudden cardiac arrest, and the years that followed I knew I wanted to be involved with the Heart Association," she said.
Berry says "Little Hats, Big Hearts" felt like the perfect opportunity. She said, "I saw the charity little hats big hearts and it just spoke to me." But to this day, she had yet to see a baby with one of those beanies. So I showed her a picture of Charlie. She loved it and told me, "You see that's why, that's why we do this. And if they can bring awareness about these issues to the mother, to the parents, that is a wonderful thing and that just makes it worth it. Look at that."