New Bedford Gala Could Help Breakthrough for Boston Children’s

When Kelly Weglowski shuts the lights off at the Whaling Museum this Saturday night, it will be for the 10th and last time. She and a committee of volunteers have already raised well over a million dollars for Boston Children's Hospital before this weekend's Healing Little Hearts Encore Gala kicks off. She appeared on the Rock and Fox Show this morning:

"I got a call from my son's heart surgeon, Dr. Meyer, and he asks us to do just one more gala because we were so close to clinical trial," said Weglowski.

Kelly is talking about some intense research that has been taking place in Boston for much of the past 20 years. The medical developments, if proven reliable in clinical trials, will save the lives of countless babies for many, many years to come.

Kelly knows more about pediatric heart research than she ever planned to know. Her son Brady, now 14 years old, was born with a congenital heart defect. He received his first open-heart surgery at two months old. In his life, Brady has undergone a total of four open-heart surgeries (where his heart was stopped for a period of time) and four cardiac caths. These are life-threatening procedures that need to be done repeatedly throughout the child's life because the implanted valve doesn't grow as a baby grows.

Until now.

Cardiologists at Boston Children's are coming incredibly close to successfully developing a live tissue valve that would, theoretically, grow as the baby grows. This would mean only one life-threatening surgery for the baby.

Brady was on the Rock and Fox Show this morning talking about how he felt before his most recent open-heart surgery, which took place right before Christmas. "I was especially nervous about the recovery, but we got through it okay," he said.

We asked Brady what he thought about his mother raising over a million dollars for research that would mean so much for kids like him. "I think its great...I'm so proud of her," Brady said as we all got choked up.

A small number of tickets to Saturday night's Healing Little Hearts Encore Gala are still available by emailing kelly@healinglittlehearts.com. It will take place at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford. Doors open at 6 p.m. Donations to the research can be made at HealingLittleHearts.com.