Heart Camp For Kids With Disease

One Man's Answer To Own Illness' Lack Of Awareness

(CBS) 

There are approximately 40,000 children born each year with congenital heart disease. People don't know this.

What Yasi knew was that her condition made her classmates uncomfortable.

She says, "They all started staying away from me, cause they thought they could catch it, like it was a cold or something."

And Yasi's mother was concerned by a cold reality.

Jan Emamian says, "The problem with this condition is that, untreated, or if she does things that she's not supposed to do, her heart will stop."

Yasi notes, "I really like to run and jump, and stuff, but I'm not allowed to."

It's bad enough feeling isolated, and then, to be told over and over, no.

Jan Emamian says, "'Oh Yasi, you can't do that. You have to stop.' The ultimate over-protective mother, just really really paranoid about everything she did."

Which brings us to how Rivard met Yasi. It was at a unique summer camp where Rivard is a counselor and where 150 kids learn they are no longer alone.

Yasi says, "It was the first time I'd ever met another child who had heart disease."

At the camp, scars that once haunted these kids are now a matter of pride, and with doctors and nurses, and constant monitoring with emergency kits never far away, but parents nowhere near.