Description
Book SynopsisNo one expected this journey. Jessica Carmel was born with a severe congenital heart condition. At four days old, her parents learned she would need heart surgery. They had no idea that her future held multiple surgeries and even more unexpected challenges. Fast-forward sixteen years. As Jessica sat in her cardiologist’s office for a routine checkup, he told her and her mom that there was nothing more he could do for her. Jessica needed a heart transplant. Three weeks later, Jessica underwent heart transplant surgery. Her recovery was long, but good. Feeling healthier than ever, she went on to graduate high school and college. Soon after her college graduation,however, she began to feel “off.” She visited the emergency room for what she thought was severe stomach pain, but it turned out her heart was the real issue. She was admitted to the hospital to relieve fluid, and a couple of days into her stay, a transplant nephrologist informed her she was going to need a kidney transplant. Nearly ten years had passed since Jessica had received her heart transplant, and now she was in desperate need for a kidney. Her only hope to survive was her hero and sister, Amy. Amy came through—right away, she agreed to offer up one of her kidneys. Now, it wasn’t enough that Jessica’s mom was going to see one daughter off to the operating room, as she had done with Jessica many times before. She would be seeing both her daughters heading into surgery. In The Hearts of a Girl, Jessica shares that story and the story of her many years of struggle to survive and thrive after a long history of challenging surgeries. It’s a story that informs and inspires.
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Bridge Over Troubled Water
CHAPTER 2 Life is a Highway
CHAPTER 3 Living on a Prayer
CHAPTER 4 Don’t You Forget About Me
Chapter 5 I Run to You
CHAPTER 6 Breath of Life
CHAPTER 7 This is Love
CHAPTER 8 Just One Day
CHAPTER 9 Show Me What I’m Looking For
CHAPTER 10 One Fine Day
CHAPTER 11 September
CHAPTER 12 Calling All Angels
CHAPTER 13 There She Goes
CHAPTER 14 Only the Young
CHAPTER 15 I Am Alive
CHAPTER 16 Brave
CHAPTER 17 Angel
CHAPTER 18 Here Comes the Sun
CHAPTER 19 Another Day
CHAPTER 20 Pompeii
CHAPTER 21 If I Die Young
CHAPTER 22 You Get What You Give
CHAPTER 23 Love Changes Everything
CHAPTER 24 Better Days
CHAPTER 25 Time After Time
CHAPTER 26 The Heart of Life
CHAPTER 27 One Headlight
CHAPTER 28 The Luckiest
CHAPTER 29 Counting Stars
CHAPTER 30 Tonight and the Rest of My Life
CHAPTER 31 As I Lay Me Down
CHAPTER 32 Follow Your Arrow
CHAPTER 33 Wonderwall
CHAPTER 34 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Reprise)
