A Family of Faith

Roseann Franco is the mother of a Heart Warrior in his 50s. He was born when the field of pediatric cardiology was in its infancy. Tune in to hear Rosanne share stories with Anna about what it was like raising a Heart Warrior while working and going to school, not to mention raising four other children. Roseann shares her family history of congenital heart disease and the remarkable events surrounding David's birth.

Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
I was determined that I was going to keep this child alive.

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Welcome to heart to heart With Anna, I am Anna Dworsky and a host of your program. Today I have a very special guest. This is a mom of a dear friend of mine. Today we will be meeting Rosie and Franco, and today's episode is called A Family of Faith. Roseanne Franco is Heart Montaigne David Franco. She was born in Manhattan, New York, and currently resides in central Connecticut. Brazilian had five Children Roseanne, Vincent, Andrew, David of Philip and was married to Frederick for over four decades. Brazilian is also a grandmother to 11 grandchildren, 10 heart healthy Children and one angel. Risen spends her time Brady still mothering her Children and grandchildren and helping out at her church. Today we're saying we'll talk with us about discovering that she had a son with a heart defect, her family history of congenital heart defects and the

spk_0:   1:08
difficult Firth and miracle that happened in her life. So welcome to heart to heart within a reason.

spk_1:   1:17
Thank you very much. And

spk_0:   1:19
for those of you who don't know, David Franco is my producer, and I kind of feel like his mom is my mom because she doesn't know this, but we talk about her all the time, so I feel like I know you rose it. And of course, I've interviewed your daughter in a passin. I've interviewed her scent. I kind of feel like an extended part of the family. You are? Uh, Well, I can't wait for us to talk about David because you have seen so much, so let's just get right into it. David was born with a fairly rare congenital heart defect called congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries. Or what some people call lt g ET today. Did any of your other Children have ah, heart defect?

spk_1:   2:08
My 1st 2 Children, Roseanne and Vincent, were born with what they call P. D. A's Peyton. Dr. Sotirios, my daughter did not close up till she was about to on Vincent. It almost closed immediately

spk_0:   2:25
awhile.

spk_1:   2:26
And my youngest son, Philip was born with VSD, which itself closed.

spk_0:   2:34
Okay, okay. Which is very common for those listeners who may not know this. A S, D. S and V s tease, or what are commonly called Holes in the heart are the most common types of heart defects. And just like what, Rosie and experienced, Ah, lot of thes Children's holes will just close up on their own. So that wasn't reassuring to you. Um, certain. After having seen David have to go through so many surgeries, I'm sure you were relieved to find out that your other son's whole was able to close up on its own.

spk_1:   3:06
Yes, absolutely.

spk_0:   3:08
But you said that Roseanne had a P D A. That did not close. Did she eventually need surgery for that?

spk_1:   3:14
No, it did eventually close, but she was around two years old. They were talking about maybe having to do some sort of surgery back in the day. They didn't tell me much

spk_0:   3:25
where I

spk_1:   3:26
am. We just prayed a lot. Thanks be to God. They did close,

spk_0:   3:30
right? So how much older then? David was Roseanne

spk_1:   3:36
10 years older.

spk_0:   3:37
Okay, so she was born in the fifties, so I'm sure they didn't tell you. Ah, whole lot of information up. Amazed. They even knew that she had the P d. A and were able to determine when it was closed.

spk_1:   3:50
Well, Roseanne was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was picked up by a pediatrician. They're not too many years later, we moved back to the New York area to West just a county, and I had a doctor in New York City and they picked it up. It was a doctor that my sister had had and I had had. She was just very good.

spk_0:   4:15
Do hard to fix, run in your family. Did you or your sister or any of the other people in your family have a heart defect?

spk_1:   4:23
Apparently, my mother did. They picked it up when my mother tried to enlist in the Navy. I don't know what it was, but that kept her out of the Navy. My sister was 10 years older than I was born with. Nobody diagnosed it for years, but she had a severe heart defect she wound up with. I believe it's called Tra ta logy of fellow

spk_0:   4:46
Oh wow.

spk_1:   4:47
But she had had many other surgeries, and they never picked it up, even getting her ready for surgery. She had osteomyelitis, so she had many, many surgeries on her legs.

spk_0:   5:00
Isn't that amazing that they didn't pick up? Because tetralogy of fellow is a fairly severe congenital heart defect

spk_1:   5:07
Yes. Then she had quote unquote rheumatic fever, which led Thio a variety of things.

spk_0:   5:16
She

spk_1:   5:16
just wasn't well, well, but mad eventually is 1960. They was German. They were going to do open heart surgery on her. She was in severe heart failure. I came in from Cincinnati. She was operated on, interestingly enough, David's birthday, the 19th of December. But she died on the 21st.

spk_0:   5:42
Oh, sorry.

spk_1:   5:44
Yes. I think that surgeon said to my parents that all my sister's organs were like the organs of a really old person, I guess because your heart was working so hard for so many years,

spk_0:   5:58
right?

spk_1:   5:59
That was the first that anybody knew of anything like that in the family.

spk_0:   6:05
Wow. So you lose your sister and then you discover you have a son who also has a heart defect. That must have been terrifying for you, Rosie. In

spk_1:   6:16
it was Thanks be to God. His dad was a great support for me and for David. I did the hospital stuff with David. Where is my husband? Supported us through that. I was blessed that way. But you know, Anna, you do what you have to do. And Sometimes you just do it.

spk_0:   6:37
Yeah, that's true. That's absolutely true. Well, I know we have a really

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interesting story coming up about David's birth, but everyone's gonna have to wait. We'll be right back.

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Take this hot industry. We're offering us a mechanical hot, and he said, now that I've had enough to give it to someone my father promised me a golden dressed world held my hand and asked me where I wanted to go. Whatever strive for conflict that we experienced in our long career together was always healed by humor.

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Heart to heart With Michael Please join us every Thursday at noon, Eastern as we talked with people from around the world who have experienced those most difficult moments energy. Dworsky has written several books to empower the congenital heart Defect, or CHD community. These books could be found at amazon dot com or at our website www dot baby hearts press dot com. Her best seller is The Heart of a Mother, an anthology of stories written by women for women in the CHD community and as other books. My brother needs an operation the heart of a Father and Hypo Plastic Left Heart Syndrome a handbook for parents will help you understand that you are not alone. Visit baby hearts press dot com to find out more. Really, you are

spk_2:   7:58
listening to heart to heart with Anna. If you have a question or comment that you would like to address the show, please send an email to Anna Dworsky at Anna at heart to heart with anna dot com. That's Anna at heart to heart with anna dot com now back to heart to heart with them

spk_0:   8:18
before the break. Roseanne We were talking about the unique circumstances of your family, and I can't help but feel that your sister was maybe a guardian angel watching over David. We know that she passed away on David's birthday, but it was prior to the year of his birth. Why don't you tell us about what happened the day David was born?

spk_1:   8:42
It was, I guess you could almost say a comedy of errors during the pregnancy. I wasn't well, I wasn't sick, but I wasn't well. Ordinarily, when I am pregnant, everybody says you really look great. My hair's want to fall my skin and everything else. I never gain much weight with David Pregnancy it was just a little off, and I don't know what that was about. Nonetheless, my obstetrician knew that he was breech position as it was coming toward the end. So hey, was to be born on such and such a date. But then the night he was born, my husband and I had friends over Ruth and Al Wells to dinner. The kids were in bed when I was a late dinner, and I can remember it was roast pork and sauerkraut. But of course we did have Manhattans. Before we had that cleaned up. They went home. So we're in bed and I thought, I think I need to get up to go to the loo, which I did, and I realized that I had what's called a showing of blood, which I'd never had with any of the other pregnancies before delivery. All

spk_0:   10:01
of

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a sudden, I'm feeling something. I got back into bed and I said, Freddy, I think something's happening. And with that, he got up and immediately got on the telephone and call the doctor. But in the meantime, yeah, I guess he decided he was going to take a look, and he realized he could see the baby was coming and he cut my nightgown right in half. And he's on the telephone talking to the doctor, and I could feel the baby coming. But then all of a sudden, everything stopped.

spk_0:   10:37
How? My goodness,

spk_1:   10:38
my husband said to the doctor, The baby is coming. Wow, He could see that. And I'll be very honest with you. I realized, if this baby is not fully born within a certain amount of time, don't ask me war. The instinct. I thought the oxygen is going to be cut off,

spk_0:   10:57
right?

spk_1:   10:57
So I said a prayer and I started pushing manually with my hands to

spk_0:   11:04
put the

spk_1:   11:04
baby out, and I didn't realize I was pushing on his head.

spk_0:   11:08
Oh, my goodness.

spk_1:   11:10
Maybe that's why he's so smart.

spk_0:   11:14
A my goodness. Wow!

spk_1:   11:18
There he was born. And then it was really a comedy of errors because

spk_0:   11:22
so your husband delivered the baby.

spk_1:   11:25
Nobody did.

spk_0:   11:26
I did. Oh,

spk_5:   11:27
my gosh.

spk_0:   11:29
Oh, my gosh. Roseanne! That is amazing. You were able to deliver him herself.

spk_1:   11:36
I literally pushed him out with my hand.

spk_0:   11:39
Wow. Now this is your third child. Is that right? No,

spk_1:   11:45
My prune,

spk_0:   11:45
your fourth. So you've had some experience delivering babies, But I bet you'd never thought you would deliver your own baby. Absolutely not. Wow. Where the bursts of your other Children fast like that?

spk_1:   12:01
No, no, none of them were precipitous. Atal.

spk_0:   12:05
Why? Had

spk_1:   12:05
the matter of fact, I'd go into labor and it would stop and then

spk_0:   12:08
yeah. Yeah, like it's like a typical birth. This was not a typical birth. What so ever?

spk_1:   12:14
No, but I do believe that it was providential, because if I had gone to the hospital, they would have given me anesthetic on. And I certainly don't think that would have helped David

spk_0:   12:28
now, considering, right? Well, they may have had you have a C section gift. I'm sure they would have with a bridge birth. Wow. Do you think when you were pushing on him that you changed his position from breach to

spk_1:   12:44
know his buttock came out first?

spk_0:   12:47
Oh, my gosh. That is amazing. Did you deliver the afterbirth or did you have that done at the hospital?

spk_1:   12:56
That part is very cloudy.

spk_0:   13:00
Yeah,

spk_1:   13:00
for me.

spk_0:   13:01
I'm surprised you were able to do what you did. I'd have fainted. I'd have been out a conscious on the floor.

spk_1:   13:09
No, you wouldn't. You know that you're going to save your child.

spk_0:   13:14
Well, yeah, it's amazing. The super strength you can muster when you have no choice. You really didn't. It sounds like you really didn't have a choice. So your husband took you to the hospital? Did your husband had the cord? Or did you? Oh, no. Your husband did not take you. Did you have an ambulance? Come pick you up?

spk_1:   13:34
Yes. Well, that's where the Comedy of Errors. You had to call the police. We're in a Hastings on Hudson. It's a small village town in Westchester County and call the police, and then the ambulance comes. It's a volunteer ambulance.

spk_0:   13:50
Oh, my goodness.

spk_1:   13:52
Yes. The police came to check on this thing, and then luckily, the policeman who came in, he was the sergeant at the time and he had a family. So he took David in a towel and wrapped him up. Stuck him on top of me. The ambulance came in, the crew came in with the gurney and we lived in a very old house. It was hard to get me down the stairs there. David was in this towel. And I kept lifting this woman blanket up, thinking I'm giving him a Rh. But no, the cord was not cut. So that didn't happen till we got to the hospital. And then they said that he receptive, receptive. We were separated. Then he was put in the special place. But nobody diagnosed the heart thing then

spk_0:   14:49
You're kidding. So he was not know Lou then He must have been pink when he was born. And nobody night most the heart if it Wow. So when did they discover that David had a heart defect?

spk_1:   15:03
My pediatrician came to the hospital. Check him out right afterwards. This is aside from the fact my obstetrician came to that hospital. But he didn't have privileges. They didn't let him in. He could only see me on the floor visiting me as if I were not. His patient was a comedy of areas.

spk_0:   15:28
Oh, anyway, goodness. Yes.

spk_1:   15:31
Then on the first visit, you go to the pediatrician was three weeks later and dr on track listen. And he said he could hear this. I think he called it at the time of thrill. I'm not sure. And he gave me orders so to speak, to make an appointment with Dr Dennison Young. He was a pediatric cardiologist, and that was the first time he was diagnosed. Then we went to see Dr Young. By this time, David, I guess four weeks old. And then they did a florist. Coffee. I can remember. They put him in a sling in front of the screen for the war in Skopje and fed him that it's like a milk of magnesia thing for the film, which he was not too happy about.

spk_0:   16:23
I'm sure

spk_1:   16:25
so then that day, Dr Young told me that David had this VSD ventricular septal defect and we had to schedule a catheterization. He was three months old when he had that cardiac catheterization at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. And apparently from what they told me afterwards, David's veins were very narrow and whatever liquid they gave him for the contrast or whatever it is that they did, that he was comatose.

spk_0:   17:04
Oh, my goodness.

spk_1:   17:07
He was in a night. Let for I've gotten that a week and 1/2.

spk_0:   17:13
Oh, my goodness. Well, were you nursing him at that time? No. So you were using formula? Yes. Was he? How is he feeding before you took him in to see the pediatrician? Was he feeding normally?

spk_1:   17:29
Yes, he was.

spk_0:   17:31
And he was gaining weight and everything.

spk_1:   17:34
Yes, and of course, he was never blew. It was never cyanotic it all, even through his whole life, even through his whole life.

spk_0:   17:42
What a miracle that they discovered that he has some heart defects, decided to

spk_3:   17:48
go ahead and do the fluoroscope e, but then put him in a coma. You must have been terrified.

spk_4:   17:57
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spk_0:   19:49
So you had a son in the hospital who was comatose, and I know you had something else very tragic happened to you at that time. Tell us a little bit about losing your mom and how that played into all of this other drama that you were going through. Roseanne

spk_1:   20:09
It's really quite remarkable that the day that I was taking David to Montefiore Hospital for the catheterization, we were getting ready in the morning and I had a call from the doctor in Brooklyn. The same doctor I mentioned earlier, Dr Rothenberger. She called me to tell me that my mother had a very severe stroke and they had taken her to the hospital. This is the same day I'm taking David down to Monte Fiori Hospital to have the cardiac catheterization.

spk_0:   20:48
Wow.

spk_1:   20:49
So David goes through the catheterization with the results that whatever the reason was, he was comatose afterwards. And bad men. My mother was in the hospital in Brooklyn. David's in the hospital in the Bronx, so it meant going back and forth. But my mother did not survive in the hospital except probably about four days.

spk_0:   21:15
And your son was still in the hospital? Yeah. Across town. Yes. Wow.

spk_1:   21:21
Now, this all happened in holy week.

spk_0:   21:25
Oh, my goodness. So you're trying to put a mass on top of all of this?

spk_1:   21:30
Well, and then my mother's funeral waas on Holy Thursday, but they couldn't have a mass, So the whole thing was a little bizarre. Then David came home from the hospital,

spk_0:   21:45
so he just woke up one day. I mean, he's in a coma. What? What happened? How did

spk_1:   21:52
even in an isolated he was on the gin in

spk_0:   21:55
it? Probably an I V drip. So, I mean, I'm just trying to picture this this poor little baby. He's, what, four months old and they don't even know why. Agreement. Three months old and he's comatose. They must have been panicked, too, because I'm sure they didn't see many kids like David way back in the sixties. So they're they're trying to take care of him. You're rushing back and forth. You lose your mother and you come back from the funeral. Your son is still in a nice A Let any. I see you. How did he improve? I mean, what happened?

spk_1:   22:34
I I don't know, because back in the day, I you couldn't always go into that area with the I select

spk_0:   22:45
right?

spk_1:   22:45
You know, the incubators and all that stuff. They didn't allow you that kind of freedom that they do now.

spk_0:   22:50
Right

spk_1:   22:50
in these knickers,

spk_0:   22:52
it

spk_1:   22:52
was entirely different. So a lot of times I could be there, but if they were going to do any kind of a treatment, you had to get out

spk_0:   23:01
right

spk_1:   23:01
that room.

spk_0:   23:02
Right? And you weren't allowed to sleep in with the baby. You had to go home for the night. Parents today have no idea how restrictive things were back then. And I know that because my son was born in the nineties and they were restrictive with me. But I know they were more restrictive with you in the sixties.

spk_1:   23:21
Yes, even beyond that different times when David would be in Montreuil Fury Hospital with oxygen. I mean, he'd be a little bit older, maybe seven, and they'd have the tent, the plastic tent. I used to go and visit him and stick my hand in tow. Hold onto him on and the nurses would come and say, You can't do that. May tip them up again.

spk_0:   23:44
How? Yeah, Yeah, because she wanted that skin to skin contact, and now we know how important that is. It's so funny because my daughter in law just gave birth to my first grand baby in December of 2018. And that was the thing that they kept saying. In effect, there was even a bulletin board in the hallway that had a poster talking about skin to skin. And so as soon as the baby was born, they gave her the baby toe hold. They wanted the mama and the baby to be. Skin is gin, and then later they let Joey, my son, hold the baby skin to skin. He opened his shirt so he could have the baby skin to skin. So the fact the two head David in a towel skin to skin with you before you had to take him to the hospital. See you, were you you were doing exactly what they're saying nowadays we should be doing and them not letting you hold him and not letting you put your hand in there to touch him. That's wrong, and they know that now. But that's that's so interesting. Okay, I just I am just stunned by the course of events that your family had to go through, talk about a roller coaster ride of the elation of having a baby and you delivering the baby safely. That is a miracle in and of itself, then losing your mother. It doesn't get much lower than that, and then almost losing your son to going up into the high where now you can take the baby home. What was the biggest lesson that you learned going through this formative time in David's life?

spk_1:   25:22
The lesson I learned was that it was a miracle that he had survived. I was determined that I was going to keep this child alive. Yeah, and he did survive. And I was afraid I wasn't adequate at this, but there was no one else to do it. I

spk_0:   25:44
mean, my mother home and your husband wasn't able to really help you at that time. Was your husband at work when you were trying to do this?

spk_1:   25:54
Yes. He was at work. And the other Children were a school

spk_0:   25:57
Sheriff.

spk_1:   25:58
Mike, you just have to carry on. You can't fall to pieces because nobody else is gonna be there. Actually, you just know that it's what you have to do to keep your child alive and that, but it all down.

spk_0:   26:15
What I hear from you is that faith played a huge role in your life.

spk_1:   26:22
Absolutely. Without it, I don't. I definitely couldn't have gotten through. And David couldn't have gotten through that for sure.

spk_0:   26:32
And it was faith that you had that kept you going. And I can't help but wonder all of this was happening to David during Holy week. I can't help but feel that God had his hand on David.

spk_1:   26:45
Yes, I believe that a little further on in his life, I really believed yet God kept him alive because he had a purpose. And I think he has been fulfilling the purpose. The mission that God has one going through what he has gone through all his life and trying to help other people with congenital heart e sex. And I really believe that he is a mission and he's doing it. He's in the mission.

spk_0:   27:20
I think he is, too. For those of you who are listening who don't know, David is the producer of my program, and he is also frequently the sound engineer. So David wears multiple hats with hearts. Unite the globe, which is the nonprofit that pays for us to have this free podcasts available to anyone in the heart community. And I do believe that his whole story is very special and very unique and awesome. Very inspiring. Did you know that I'm asking David to write for a book that I'm putting together.

spk_1:   27:56
He mentioned something, but he he always plays himself down.

spk_0:   28:01
I know. Why does he do that? I

spk_1:   28:05
don't know.

spk_0:   28:06
He's too self deprecating way we need to work on David. He has a very special story and his a huge inspiration to make. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Part two will be next week, but we have to end this show today. Thank you so much, Roseanne, for coming on the program today.

spk_1:   28:26
Thank you for having me.

spk_0:   28:29
That does conclude this episode of heart to heart with Anna. Thanks for listening today. Find us on I heart radio and subscribe. And remember, my friends,

spk_3:   28:38
you are not alone.

spk_2:   28:43
Thank you again for joining us this week Way Hope you have been inspired on Empowered to become an advocate for the congenital heart defect community Heart to heart with Anna with your hose down, Dworsky can be heard every Tuesday at 12. Noon eastern time.