What are some of the dangers of addiction when you have a Fontan heart? How does a Heart Warrior who has addiction problems break free from the addiction? What new project is Joe Flowers embarking upon in 2023?

Today’s show is Addiction and Congenital Heart Defects and our Guest is Joe Flowers. We’ll start today’s program by learning a bit about Joe in Segment 1. In the second segment, we’re going to talk about complications that Joe has had and in the third segment, we’ll discuss Joe’s pacemaker and future prognosis.

Joe Flowers was born in 1980 with Tricuspid Atresia, an ASD, and a VSD. He had a chronic sinus infection in his early life but remained well enough to avoid heart surgery until the age of 11 years. He had a modified Fontan which was successful and he enjoyed good heart health for almost 20 years. In 2009 at the age of 29, he was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, for which he received a defibrillator. Around this time, Joe also had back surgery. Unfortunately, a private struggle was building in Joe’s life with the pressures of work, marriage, and family and he developed an addiction problem, which he paid for dearly. Today, Joe wants to rebuild his health and take charge of his life. 

Visit our Heart to Heart with Anna Social Media and Podcast pages:

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/H2HwAnnapodcast
FB: https://www.facebook.com/HearttoHeartwithAnna/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/hearttoheartwithanna/
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/annajaworski
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaJaworski
Website: https://tinyurl.com/4kuckfn7
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/HUGpodcast

Music thanks to the Baby Blue Sound Collective - https://tinyurl.com/BBSCmusic

If you enjoy this program and would like to be a Patron, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/HeartToHeart