A Heart Transplant Survivor Helps Her Son Face His Own: Danon’s Disease (273) – Brittany's Story

Psychologist and heart-transplant recipient Dr. Brittany Clayborne shares how her own medical journey prepared her to guide her son Micah through sudden heart failure, an LVAD, and a life-saving transplant. She unpacks the family’s rare Danon’s disease diagnosis, post-transplant cancer (PTLD), and the everyday realities after transplant—meds, setbacks, and hope. You’ll learn Dr. Brittany’s BRAVE framework for hard moments, how rituals sustain connection during long hospital stays, and how Micah turned his experience into action with Transplant Teens and My Brave Journal. This conversation is packed with concrete tools, compassion, and the reminder that “hope is a team sport.” You do not want to miss this week's episode.

Featured moments:

• 00:00 — Why families need “somewhere to be brave.”
  
  

• 04:50 — Brittany’s peripartum cardiomyopathy, ICU wait, and LVAD.
  
  

• 10:05 — PTLD diagnosis and becoming the psychologist she needed.
  
  

• 12:50 — Micah’s chest pain → HCM crisis and transplant path.
  
  

• 24:00 — The BRAVE acronym families can use today.
  
  

• 44:00 — “Hope is a team sport.” Transplant Teens' vision.
  
  

Key takeaways:

• Use BRAVE in tough conversations: Breathe • Realize feelings • Accept them • Vent/Vulnerable with a trusted person • Elevate above it.
  
  

• Build predictable touchpoints (calls/visits) to anchor kids during long hospitalizations.
  
  

• Teens heal better with peers; if the group doesn’t exist yet, create it.
  
  

Resources mentioned:

• Transplant Teens (free peer support for grades 7–12)

• • Transplant Teens Instagram

• My Brave Journal (and transplant edition) by Micah — on Amazon.
  
  

• Contact Dr. Brittany: @DrBrittanySpeaks; offers limited free virtual sessions with referrals for ongoing care.
  
  

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