Johns Hopkins All Children's heart patients celebrate Valentine's Day

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - It's a day of paper hearts and a party, but the real celebration is for the real hearts that beat in kids like Christopher.

"When he was born, and they told me he had all these issues, I was scared, very scared, that I wouldn't have him," says Crystal Belletete, Chrisotpher's mom. 

He was born with two holes in his heart. If it hadn't been for heart surgeries and the care from doctor and nurses at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, this Valentine's Day might have been very different for his mom.

"They've made us feel like family. They've saved my child," says Crystal.

Every year on Valentine's Day, we see the connection of the emotional heart and the physical heart. Most everyone feels it.

"We see these kids grow up and act very normal," says Dr. Jamie Decker, a cardiologist. "We get them through their initial surgeries and watch them grow and develop."

Decker says new technology is bringing smaller and better pacemakers and less invasive heart surgery. They perform more than 1,000 heart surgeries a year at the hospital. The biggest gift of the heart is hope.

"They've give us more hope than I can ever imagine,," says Crystal. At this party, valentines really are about the heart.