Kristen Brady has always found her work rewarding as assistant director of research administration at Weill Cornell Medicine, and it took on a deeper meaning when she became pregnant with her first child five years ago. Kristen's daughter Gemma was born with a hypoplastic right ventricle, a condition where the right half of her heart was not developed. Gemma has thrived under the care of her Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital team, including surgeon Dr. Emile Bacha and cardiologist Dr. Patrick Flynn. By age three, she'd had three open heart surgeries to divert the venous blood to the pulmonary arteries, the first of which took place during the height of the pandemic. When Kristen's third child, Dylan, was born in 2023, she discovered that he, too, had a heart condition called a vascular ring where his aorta was wrapped around his esophagus. At six months old, he had surgery to correct it. Thinking about their futures, Kristen wonders about their health into adulthood and has become an advocate for research. "Understanding the research process through my work was helpful with my kids, because I know how much work goes into it, and how important it is to fund these projects," she says. She's worked hard to raise money for The Children's Heart Foundation, running marathons and half marathons on behalf of her children. Most recently, she ran the 2024 Disney Half Marathon, raising more than $3,000. While training is much harder now with three kids, she is motivated to keep going because of them. "As I was running, I just kept thinking of my kids. I didn't care much about my time, I was just having fun and it felt good raising funds for the cause," she says. Her kids are taking notice and want to join and lately Gemma has been asking to run with her mom. "It might look different than my typical run," says Kristen, both because of Gemma's age and her condition, "but I think it shows that she doesn't think of herself as unable."
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