She was born with a defective heart.
But those who spend time with Joanne Snyder, a physician assistant at Children's Heart Center, think her heart is more whole than most.
"I'd never had a child at all and now I have one with a cardiac condition," said April Preston, 28, of Cranesville in Erie County, while at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Monday. Her son, Malachi, 4 months old, suffers from a condition in which only a single heart ventricle is pumping. "She made me feel like, OK, I can do this."
What Preston doesn't know about Snyder -- most of the people she helps are unaware -- is that she herself is a former Children's Hospital patient. She was born with tetralogy of Fallot, a condition that disables the heart from pumping enough blood to the lungs.
Doctors repaired Snyder's heart with two surgeries -- one when she was 3 months old, the second when she was 3 years old. The first procedure intentionally pinched off an artery on her left side. Since then, she's had no pulse in her left arm. Those experiences inspired her to work with pediatric heart patients.
"If I can make things better for these kids, then I want to be here," said Snyder, 28, of Cranberry. Her job includes explaining symptoms and operations to parents and children. "I can't imagine my parents trying to understand what my defect was, why I needed surgery and how they were going to do it."
Snyder uses discretion when deciding whether to share her heart condition with the families she helps.
"It's not about me," she said. "It's about their baby. They need to focus on that. I tell some of them, yes, to let them know they're going to be OK."
Dr. Victor O. Morrell, a Children's heart surgeon who's worked with Snyder for about a year, said when she decides to share that she is one of them, it can be powerful.
"They know she's been through it," Morrell said. "They can look at her and see she's doing fine. They realize the outlook isn't necessarily as bleak as they once believed."
Kristyn Lowery, Snyder's friend of 10 years, said she has witnessed it.
"It's amazing," said Lowery, 28, who earned a master's degree with Snyder at Duquesne University and is a fellow physician assistant at Children's. "I've seen the relief that comes over them when Joanne tells them. They see someone with a heart condition who's confident, intelligent and healthy."
Her patients love her. T.J. Wilson, 2, a heart-transplant patient, blows Snyder kisses every time she visits him. He even named a stuffed monkey "Jo Jo" after her. He can't pronounce Joanne.
Snyder often buys presents for the children she helps. While attending a wedding in Erie last summer, she visited a former patient who lives there. A photo of the two of them outside her house sits above Snyder's desk.
"Joanne reaches out on a personal level with families," said Dr. Marcus Rivera, a Children's gastroenterologist. "She's very dedicated to the families that she interacts with. That's just her normal, baseline attitude."
Social skills like that make Snyder a big sister MaryAnne Eckert, 25, of Aspinwall, can rely on.
"Joanne's given me pep talks before job interviews," said Eckert, one of Snyder's three siblings. "It's pretty inspiring to see her do what she wanted to do and make it happen. She helped me do the same thing."
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