Julie Bard

The face for heart disease may not be what you expect. That’s what Julie Bard wants you to know. At 30-years-old, a loving wife and mother to her 3-year-old son, Julie has already undergone four heart surgeries.

Julie was born with congenital pulmonary tenosis: a valve letting blood into her artery was not opening wide enough. When she was just two days old, she had closed heart surgery and at 19 months she had to have open heart surgery to repair a valve. Doctors told her parents that it would likely need be replaced at age 15.

Julie lived an active, healthy childhood. “I grew up with a heart condition,” Julie reflects, “but it never stopped me from dancing, hiking or travelling. I saw myself as normal like everyone else.” Regular cardiologist checkups confirmed her health.

In the summer of 2010, she began to feel unusually short of breath during routine activities. Following tests, her doctor explained that her pulmonary and tricuspid valves needed to be replaced.

Julie had surgery to replace both valves in May 2011, and was discharged from the hospital in good health. At home, just days later, her heartbeat flat-lined. She remembers the fear of losing herself, not knowing if she would survive and the pain of not knowing what would happen to her son and her family.

She was rushed back to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, and underwent her second major heart surgery a mere two weeks after the first, to insert a dual chamber pacemaker. 

Today, Julie is still recovering, participating in cardio rehabilitation in St. Paul’s Healthy Heart program and taking medications, as well as undergoing regular tests and monitoring.

Research funded at the Heart and Stroke Foundation may find the genetic cause behind malfunctioning valves. This year, researchers like Dr. Pamela Hoodless are pushing the
boundaries of our knowledge, and finding new answers for patients like Julie. Dr. Pamela Hoodless is learning more about how an infant’s heart developments in the womb impact the development of our heart valves.

Julie’s experience has completely changed her life. She leaves one parting thought, “It’s easy to think of heart disease as an older man’s disease. But we need to be thinking about our partners, our friends, our children; those we least suspect to have heart disease. And we need to fund research studies to help these people today and tomorrow. New research developments are something we all depend on – myself included.”