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Twenty-three years ago – long before the issue became personal – Alyiah Luntzer’s mom started teaching kids about the importance of heart health.

In an elementary school just outside of Richmond, Virginia, Christina Luntzer showed the kids in her physical education classes how to keep their hearts healthy by jumping rope. She taught them how to recognize the signs of a stroke. And just in case someone went into sudden cardiac arrest, she taught them how to perform Hands-Only CPR and where the automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, were kept so they could help staff retrieve them. She also led the annual Jump Rope for Heart event, now known as the Kids Heart Challenge, benefitting the ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ.

Back then, educating kids about heart health was all part of Christina’s job. She felt good about doing it.

She’s felt even better about it since Alyiah was born. In 2013, Alyiah entered the world with not one but several heart defects.

Alyiah was born with tetralogy of Fallot, a collection of conditions that includes a hole in the wall that separates the two chambers of her heart, an obstruction that prevents blood from flowing from the heart to the lungs, an overly thickened muscle around the lower right chamber of the heart and her aorta positioned over the hole in her heart’s lower chambers.

Just five days after she was born, Alyiah underwent open-heart surgery to insert a valve that kept her heart beating. She’s had five heart procedures, including another open-heart surgery in 2022 after her valve wore out. She sees 13 specialists for genetic, neurological, immunological and other related conditions, on top of the pediatric care all children receive. She is highly susceptible to any infectious disease.

But she’s also a preteen with an older sister and a younger sister. Her mom said “she’s allowed to do whatever she can tolerate,” which is a lot.

“I like to climb trees and jump on the trampoline,” Alyiah said. She also plays basketball and golf, and competes with a community swim team. “And I like to play with my friends.”

While Alyiah said her heart condition “doesn’t really affect my life,” it sometimes does.

Running and playing can sometimes cause migraines and other pain that she has learned to manage. “It’ll hurt and then I won’t be able to do things,” she said. “But most of the time it doesn’t.”

Her grandmother, Gwen Rutherford, lived with Alyiah’s family last summer while recovering from some health issues. She was in awe of her granddaughter’s energy. Alyiah made her breakfast, walked her dogs and kept her company every day after school. Alyiah even brought her a heart-shaped rock she found.

“She just has a serving heart,” Rutherford said. “Alyiah is my hero. She has been a warrior since the time she was born. She is not intimidated about her heart problems.”

Quite the opposite. Alyiah embraces being a survivor of heart disease.

In kindergarten, her school was putting on a talent show. Although it was meant for older children, Alyiah talked her way on stage. She danced to Rachel Platten’s 2015 hit, “Fight Song,” then told the whole school about her condition. She now serves as youth ambassador for her school’s ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ events.

As a family, the Luntzers take part in their local Heart Walk every year. They have gotten to know other families with kids dealing with serious heart issues. Christina has become friends with some of the other “heart moms.”

Being part of that community – from raising her daughter to supporting other families – is so important to Christina that the inside of her left forearm bears this tattoo: a woman’s face inside a heart – the symbol for a “heart mom” – connected to the squiggly lines of an EKG to represent a heartbeat, which is connected to a cross that represents her faith.

“I can be at the hospital getting a cup of coffee and other moms will see it and know I am a safe person for them to talk to,” she said.

Alyiah wants other kids with heart problems to know she’s also a safe person to speak with about heart health. Her advice? “Make sure to take your medicine and don’t go over the limit of what your heart can handle.”

Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.