{"id":430839,"date":"2026-09-09T17:56:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430839\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T17:56:20","slug":"how-blue-paint-is-helping-save-babies-with-heart-defects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430839\/","title":{"rendered":"How blue paint is helping save babies with heart defects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vtmqdpqmlo34qq7f.jpg\" alt=\"How blue paint is helping save babies with heart defects\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vtmqdpqmlo34qq7f.jpg\" alt=\"How blue paint is helping save babies with heart defects\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image vod-poster-image--embedded\" data-v-5173a8d8=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; Archway Gallery in Montrose is featuring a new exhibit titled &#8220;Heartstrings&#8221; by Houston artist and former nurse Catherine Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">A portion of sales from the artwork and prints sold online will directly support HeartGift Houston to fund surgical procedures for children born with congenital heart defects.<\/p>\n<p> Rodgers&#8217; inspiration  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Before Rodgers was born, her parents lost her nearly-three-year-old sister Laura to a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Encouraged by her family to pursue a career in nursing, Rodgers gained a deep clinical understanding of the emotional and physical journey families experience when seeking medical care for their children.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">She chose to channel her family&#8217;s loss into healing by tagging HeartGift Foundation as her featured charity, using shades like Indanthrone blue to spotlight &#8220;blue babies&#8221; born with heart conditions.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;My parents encouraged me to become a nurse, so I have a great background and a huge understanding of what these families are going through when they bring their children to the United States to have (this type of heart) surgery, and I love that I could spotlight HeartGift with this exhibit, hoping it serves as a celebration of Laura because so many children are alive today because doctors learned from her,&#8221; says Catherine Rodgers.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;For someone to take a family tragedy and to want to give back so that others don&#8217;t have to feel the same pain is just incredible, and these funds will help us save lives because HeartGift provides life-saving heart surgeries to children born with congenital heart defects from around the world,&#8221; says Janna Altmann, Executive Director of HeartGift.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Why you should care:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Congenital heart defects affect one out of every 100 babies born each year worldwide, yet only 10% of those children have access to the specialized care needed to survive.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">HeartGift was originally founded in 2000 by Dr. Chip Oswald and Ray Wilkerson during a trip to the Amazon. Since then, HeartGift has worked to bridge this gap across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Funds are raised to bring those babies to Houston for life-saving surgery.<\/p>\n<p> How to attend the exhibit <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What you can do:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">You can attend the &#8220;Heartstrings&#8221; exhibit at Archway Gallery in Montrose or purchase artwork and prints to directly benefit children in need of surgical care.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The &#8220;Heartstrings&#8221; exhibit runs now through Oct. 1, with an official opening reception scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and an artist talk at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Learn more about the exhibit and the foundation&#8217;s global mission by visiting <a class=\"x_ng-star-inserted x_OWAAutoLink\" href=\"https:\/\/heartgift.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"OWA39a1321a-69a3-9f82-7544-d0e78c84856c\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HeartGift<\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archwaygallery.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">https:\/\/www.archwaygallery.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: FOX 26&#8217;s Anchor\/Medical Reporter Melissa Wilson interviewed Catherine Rodgers and Janna Altmann to gather information for this story.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/houston\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/health\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Health<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; Archway Gallery in Montrose is featuring a new exhibit titled &#8220;Heartstrings&#8221; by Houston artist and former&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[584,56,58,57,223,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-430839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-health","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}