Advocate Spotlight: Jennifer Collins

Twelve Hours That Changed Everything

How one Heart Powered family helped protect newborn lives through pulse oximetry policy

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Jennifer Collins thought she knew what the hardest moment of becoming a new mother would be: giving birth to her first child.

She was wrong.

Just 12 hours after Jennifer welcomed her beautiful daughter, Cassidy, the newborn was placed in transport and rushed across state lines for emergency heart surgery. Cassidy had been diagnosed with a critical congenital heart defect (CCHD), a group of life-threatening conditions that often show no outward symptoms at birth.

Without surgery, Cassidy wouldn’t survive.

“I remember sitting in that hospital room, finally able to be with my daughter after her surgery, watching her sleep,” Jennifer said. “As a new mom, I was terrified. Then I read about my daughter’s heart defect – and I was terrified all over again.”

While Cassidy recovered at Duke University Hospital, Jennifer turned to patient materials from the American Heart Association. One sentence stopped her cold: Children born with Cassidy’s condition cannot survive without surgical intervention.

That moment changed everything.

Jennifer made a quiet promise – to her daughter and to herself – that she would give back to the organization whose science, research and advocacy helped save Cassidy’s life.

Turning gratitude into purpose

As Cassidy grew stronger, the Collins family’s gratitude evolved into action. Jennifer began volunteering with the American Heart Association, raising funds through Heart Walk events and becoming a grassroots advocate, working alongside staff and fellow advocates in Virginia and North Carolina.

Over time, advocacy became a family value.

Cassidy found her voice early. She got involved in Jump Rope For Heart and Hoops For Heart (now known as Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge, respectively). She participated in school fundraisers for the Heart Association. She spoke about the importance of heart health.

As she grew older, she became a passionate advocate for heart health—eventually earning recognition as the American Heart Association’s National Youth Advocate of the Year.

After Cassidy was born, Jennifer and her husband welcomed two more children, Caroline and Chase. By middle school, both were advocating for heart health right alongside their sister, inspired by Cassidy’s story and united by a shared sense of purpose.

They decided to focus their efforts on requiring pulse oximetry screening, a simple, non-invasive test that measures oxygen levels in a newborn’s blood to detect heart defects, in North Carolina.

She brought Cassidy, Caroline and Chase with her to the state capitol in Raleigh for North Carolina State Lobby Day, joining other American Heart Association grassroots advocates to share their family’s story directly with lawmakers. Together, they spoke not in hypotheticals, but from lived experience – about fear, urgency and the difference early detection can make.

Their advocacy worked.

In 2013, North Carolina passed legislation requiring pulse oximetry screening for all newborns. Mandatory screening protocols were implemented statewide by July 2014.

At the time, only seven states had similar laws.

North Carolina’s action helped spark a nationwide movement. One by one, states across the country followed suit, and by 2018, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had implemented mandatory newborn CCHD screening using pulse oximetry.

The impact has been profound. A study published in JAMA found that infant deaths from critical congenital heart defects dropped by 33% after mandatory pulse oximetry screening laws took effect.

Proof that voices matter

For Jennifer, those numbers represent real children—babies like Cassidy.

“These laws save lives,” she said. “And they don’t happen unless people are willing to speak up, tell their stories and show up.”

Today, the Collins family continues to advocate alongside thousands of other American Heart Association Heart Powered advocates nationwide who are showing what’s possible when personal purpose meets collective action.

The Collins’ journey – from a hospital delivery room to the halls of state government – demonstrates the power of informed, compassionate advocacy. It’s proof that one family’s voice, grounded in lived experience and forged by love, can help protect millions of newborns nationwide.

Progress doesn’t just happen.

It happens when people care – and act.

 

Join the American Heart Association’s Heart Powered movement and help advance lifesaving policies that support families and communities nationwide.

Visit HeartPowered.org or text HEART to 46839 to get involved.

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Photos courtesy the American Heart Association.