[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/04\/heart-camp-for-kids\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/04\/heart-camp-for-kids\/","headline":"An Unorthodox Summer Camp for Kids Is All Heart","name":"An Unorthodox Summer Camp for Kids Is All Heart","description":"Keith McIntire isn\u2019t supposed to be alive. He\u2019s a miracle. He\u2019s also adamant that this story isn\u2019t about him. To Keith, the real story is the summer camp for kids with congenital heart disease (CHD) that he helped to found in 1991. But to tell the story of Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids, […]","datePublished":"2019-04-17","dateModified":"2021-10-11","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/","name":"UPMC","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/upmc\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Keith-McIntire-Portrait.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Keith-McIntire-Portrait.jpg","height":327,"width":742},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/04\/heart-camp-for-kids\/","about":["Living and Wellness","Pediatrics"],"wordCount":1024,"articleBody":"Keith McIntire isn\u2019t supposed to be alive. He\u2019s a miracle. He\u2019s also adamant that this story isn\u2019t about him.To Keith, the real story is the summer camp for kids with congenital heart disease (CHD) that he helped to found in 1991. But to tell the story of Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids, held annually at Camp Kon-O-Kwee in Merion Township, Pennsylvania, you have to tell Keith\u2019s story, too. Neither story would be quite the same without the other.Born in 1959 with a rare heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with absent pulmonary leaflets, Keith underwent his first surgery at UPMC Children\u2019s Hospital of Pittsburgh when he was just 9 months old to have what was believed to be a bronchial cyst removed. That surgery turned exploratory in nature when it was discovered that the spherical dilation that was seen on the x-ray was on the pulmonary, not the bronchial artery. It was then that doctors discovered Keith was missing a pulmonary valve and diagnosed his heart condition. Because of the rare defect, Keith was never expected to survive to his first birthday \u2013 let alone until his 16th \u2013 when he had his second heart surgery.\u201cWhen I was diagnosed in the early 60s, my parents were sent home with me and the doctors said, \u2018just take him home and love him, there\u2019s nothing we can do at this time.\u2019 And they did,\u201d says Keith. \u201cThey let me do all the things I wanted to do. They didn\u2019t try to coddle me, and I just kept going year after year.\u201dA Pediatric Transplant First at UPMC Children\u2019s HospitalFinally, at age 16, Keith received the first-ever porcine, or pig-heart, valve surgery at UPMC Children\u2019s. That valve served him well until he was 23 when he received the mechanical valve that he has to this day.Test your knowledge of congenital heart disease with this quiz.\u201cI was definitely a part of some \u2018firsts\u2019 at Children\u2019s,\u201d says Keith. \u201cFor many years I was their poster child for pediatric cardiac care. I\u2019m actually Children\u2019s oldest living heart patient that they have followed since birth. I\u2019m pretty fortunate.\u201dfunction load_upmc_video_1_fm8cs0sc(obj,autoplay){window[\"autoplay_1_fm8cs0sc\"]=autoplay;let $this=$(obj),el=document.createElement(\"script\");$this.removeAttr(\"onmouseover\").removeAttr(\"onclick\").html(\"\");el.src=\"https:\/\/cdnapisec.kaltura.com\/p\/5687602\/embedPlaykitJs\/uiconf_id\/53926702\";document.body.appendChild(el);var waiting_1_fm8cs0sc=setInterval(function(){if(window[\"KalturaPlayer\"] !== undefined){clearInterval(waiting_1_fm8cs0sc);try{let kalturaPlayer=KalturaPlayer.setup({targetId:\"kaltura-video_1_fm8cs0sc_6a0ee9fa56c52\",provider:{partnerId:\"5687602\",uiConfId:\"53926702\"},playback:{autoplay:autoplay_1_fm8cs0sc}});kalturaPlayer.loadMedia({entryId:\"1_fm8cs0sc\"});}catch(e){console.error(e);}document.getElementById(\"kaltura-video_1_fm8cs0sc_6a0ee9fa56c52\").dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent(\"videoLoad\",{bubbles:true,detail:{\"selector\":\"kaltura-video_1_fm8cs0sc_6a0ee9fa56c52\",\"account_id\":\"5687602\",\"player_id\":\"53926702\",\"video_id\":\"1_fm8cs0sc\",\"autoplay\":\"autoplay_1_fm8cs0sc\"}}));}},10);}Also fortunate are the kids who have attended the camp that Keith helped found with the now-retired pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Bill Neches. All of the campers have been UPMC Children\u2019s patients, too, and each is a CHD survivor. A number of them have stories as miraculous as Keith\u2019s. And though the camp itself is held just one week a year, many campers return each year, eventually becoming counselors and adult volunteers. It has become quite a community.Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids: Fun and EducationalThe campers, all from the tri-state area, have been afforded world-class care at UPMC Children\u2019s, which established the nation\u2019s first pediatric transplant center in 1981 under the guidance of transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD. UPMC Children\u2019s has performed more pediatric transplants than any other pediatric transplant center. It welcomes children and families from all over the world for its expertise, innovation, and achieves patient survival rates that are among the highest in the world.\u201cWhen Dr. Neches came to me with the idea of this camp, he wanted to bring kids with CHD together to show them that they aren\u2019t alone, different, or too fragile to run and play and live their lives,\u201d says Keith. \u201cThe camp encourages kids to be kids without allowing heart disease to limit them.\u201dWhile children with CHD do not face the grim prognosis that Keith faced all those years ago, they often feel isolated and begin to doubt their abilities. Consequently, Heart Camp seeks to build confidence and afford children the opportunity to try new things, while learning about their health and hearts. The camp has clinician volunteers who interact with the kids. Special sessions let campers ask questions about their hearts.\u201cKids get to talk with doctors at camp and ask questions that they might not ask if their mom or dad was around,\u201d says Keith. \u201cWe really want them to learn about their hearts so they can be their own health advocates one day. We have sly ways of making camp as educational as it is fun.\u201dFormer Heart Campers Make GoodClearly, it\u2019s working. Former campers have gone on to work on CHD initiatives, either professionally, philanthropically, or both. Off the top of his head, Keith can point to former campers who work in research, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry. One is going to Harvard to become a pediatric cardiac surgeon. Another is a Ph.D. doing research in technologies that can heal heart defects. Several have gone into nursing as well. Keith himself works in Medical Genetics at UPMC Children’s.What\u2019s obvious is that current campers are having fun, making friends, gaining confidence, learning about themselves, and realizing just how lucky they are to have had great care that lets them live full lives. It\u2019s also clear that camp is having a lasting impact on former campers and encouraging them to pay their good fortune forward to help others who are just beginning their CHD journeys.Heart Camp Remains Close to Keith\u2019s HeartAnd though Keith never wanted this story to be about him, as he heads into another summer as director of Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids, a position that he held in a volunteer capacity until six years ago when he was formally hired to run the camp, he exemplifies paying it forward to others as well as anyone could hope to.\u201cI didn\u2019t expect to be at the camp all these years,\u201d says Keith. \u201cIt has become a full-time job in its own right. But I\u2019ll always remember years ago when a little boy looked up at me and asked how old I was. At the time, I was 33. He was in awe and said that he never expected to live that long. I knew then that I couldn\u2019t leave this camp. I had to share my hope with these kids.\u201d"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"04","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/\/04\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"An Unorthodox Summer Camp for Kids Is All Heart","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2019\/04\/heart-camp-for-kids\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]