When I Wished upon a Star: From Broken Homes to Mended Hearts

Growing up as a patient with congenital heart disease, Brandon Lane Phillips often felt alone. He knew no one else who had his heart condition and believed no one understood his condition. Brandon believed he would die young. Like many congenital heart patients, he wondered if he would have a long life. It is only natural to question one’s mortality when open-heart surgery is what enabled you to survive childhood.

Brandon worried that his heart defect caused his parents’ divorce and question...