Joshua’s Heart Story: Pediatric Heart Disease and the Promise of Stem Cell Advances

The day before 9/11,  just four months pregnant, Mary Goulart and her husband learned through ultrasounds that their baby had several heart defects including a missing left ventricle. After birth, baby Joshua endured three open-heart surgeries and a massive stroke. Through years of various therapies and true determination, Joshua met his challenges with many accomplishments. 

In this video, Joshua’s mom recounts his story to the CIRM Governing Board during a public seminar, Spotlight on Stem Cell Advances in Pediatric Heart Disease. Ms. Goulart tells the board she’s very aware of the gift of life her son was given her modern medicine and that her family holds out hope for new advances in regenerative medicine because eventually Joshua will need a heart transplant unless other solutions are discovered.

Goulart was introduced by Deepak Srivastava, a CIRM grantee and director of the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at The Gladstone Institutes.