Hey there! Have you ever felt your heart beating inside your chest? It’s a pretty cool feeling, right? Let’s explore what that actually looks like and why it’s so important.
Your heart is like a super important pump inside your body. When you feel that “ba-bump, ba-bump,” it’s your heart muscles squeezing. These squeezes push blood all around your body, which is super important because your blood carries oxygen and nutrients that keep you alive and healthy.
Have you ever noticed your heart beating really fast when you’re nervous or excited? Maybe when you’re about to ride a roller coaster or take a big test? That’s your heart working extra hard to get your body ready for action!
Let me tell you a true story about a brave doctor named Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, or Dr. Dan for short. He lived in Chicago over 100 years ago. One night, a young man named James came to the hospital with a serious injury to his heart. Dr. Dan had to perform heart surgery to save James’ life, even though it was something almost no one had done before!
Dr. Dan faced many challenges. Back then, Black doctors like him weren’t allowed to work in most hospitals, and Black patients often couldn’t get the care they needed. But Dr. Dan didn’t give up. He started a hospital called Provident Hospital, where everyone could get help, no matter their skin color.
When James needed help, Dr. Dan was ready. He carefully operated on James’ heart, even though it was like trying to sew during an earthquake because the heart was still beating! Thanks to Dr. Dan’s bravery and skill, James recovered and lived a long, healthy life.
Dr. Dan’s story teaches us that trying new things can be scary, but it’s worth it when it helps others. He believed everyone deserves good care, and because he didn’t give up, many people got the help they needed.
That’s the end of our heart adventure! Remember, there are so many mysteries in the world waiting to be explored. Keep asking questions and stay curious. Who knows what amazing things you’ll discover next?
Feel Your Heartbeat: Find a quiet place and sit down comfortably. Place your hand over your chest and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and try to feel your heartbeat. Can you count how many times your heart beats in one minute? Ask a family member to help you with a timer. Try this activity after running in place for a minute and see if your heartbeat changes. Discuss with your family why you think your heart beats faster after exercise.
Heart Pump Experiment: Let’s make a simple model of how your heart pumps blood. You will need a small plastic bottle, a balloon, a straw, and some water. Fill the bottle halfway with water. Stretch the balloon over the top of the bottle. Make a small hole in the balloon and insert the straw. When you squeeze the bottle, watch how the water moves through the straw. This is similar to how your heart pumps blood through your body. Talk about how this experiment shows the way your heart works.
Imagine a Day as Dr. Dan: Pretend you are Dr. Dan for a day. Think about what it would be like to be a doctor who helps people with their hearts. Draw a picture of yourself as Dr. Dan, and write a short story about a day in your life as a heart doctor. What challenges might you face, and how would you overcome them? Share your story with your class or family.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(ring tone dialing) – Hey, it’s Esther. Have you ever felt your heart beating? Have you ever wondered what that looks like? Check this out. This is a model of what a real human heart looks like inside someone’s chest. See how it’s moving? That ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump is a heartbeat. Each ba-bump you feel is the muscles in your heart squeezing. Those squeezes move your blood from your heart through your whole body. That’s super important because you need your blood to keep moving to stay alive.
I know I sometimes feel my heart beating when I get nervous. When I’m about to do something that scares me, like riding a roller coaster or taking a test, my heart starts beating really fast. I bet you’ve probably felt that way at some point too. Someone named Ca’Nylah has a question about hearts. Let’s call Ca’Nylah now. (ring tone dialing) – Hi, Esther. – Hey, Ca’Nylah. – I have a question for you. How do you fix a broken heart? – That’s a great question. Okay, so usually when we say someone has a broken heart, we just mean that they’re feeling really sad. But like any other body part, a real heart can get sick or injured and need a doctor’s help.
Let me tell you a story about a time this happened in the city where I grew up, Chicago. This is a true story, and it has to do with a doctor who lived in Chicago over 100 years ago. His name was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. His patients called him Dr. Dan. One hot summer night in 1893, Dr. Dan was working at a Chicago hospital when a patient arrived with an emergency. The patient, a young man named James, had a deep cut in his chest that went all the way to his heart. Dr. Dan knew that this was serious. If James’ heart stopped beating, he might not live. So he made a decision. He was going to fix James’ heart. That meant doing heart surgery using tools to open James’ chest and repair the injury inside his body.
The tricky part was that Dr. Dan had never done heart surgery before. To be fair, most people hadn’t. At the time, only one person in the whole world had ever done heart surgery like this before. I’m curious, have you ever tried to do something that you’d never done before? How did you feel? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss. Okay, ready? Maybe you felt scared, unsure, or excited. Maybe your heart even started beating really fast. As he prepared to do the heart surgery for the first time, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams probably felt some of those things too.
But Dr. Dan had a lot of practice doing new and challenging things. Back when he first became a doctor, he faced a difficult problem. At that time, most hospitals in the U.S. refused to let Black doctors treat patients. Dr. Dan was an excellent doctor, but hospitals wouldn’t hire him because he was Black. And there was another problem too. Most hospitals in the U.S. refused to offer good medical care to patients who were Black. So in a busy city like Chicago that already didn’t have enough hospitals, Black people had fewer options that they could go to if they were sick.
Dr. Dan understood how deeply unfair this was. Some people in his family were white, some were Black, and some were Native American. Some were born in the U.S., some weren’t. Some of his neighbors were Black and some of them were white. Dr. Dan knew that everyone in his community needed good medical care, so he decided to do something he’d never done before. He decided to start a hospital. He gathered the best doctors and best nurses he could find, whether they were Black or white. And with the help of his friends, he raised money with community leaders, pastors, business owners, politicians, and other people who believed in his vision. Together, they founded Provident Hospital, the first hospital in Chicago open to all patients and all skilled medical workers.
This is the same hospital where years later, Dr. Dan decided to perform heart surgery to save James’ life. Dr. Dan knew that trying this new surgery would be dangerous and scary, but he also knew that James needed the surgery. That’s why he did all that work in the first place to create the hospital, so people like James could get the help they needed to stay healthy. So Dr. Dan got to work, carefully cutting through James’ chest all the way to his heart. When Dr. Dan finally found the injury, he cleaned it, and then all that he needed to do was sew it closed, but James’ heartbeat was still pumping. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. Which meant that his heart and everything around it was moving. It was like trying to sew in an earthquake. Dr. Dan tried his best, and it wasn’t easy, but in the end, it worked. James lived, and 51 days after he entered the hospital, he walked out a healthy man. James went on to live for many more years, and Dr. Dan served patients for many more years, and his hospital, Provident Hospital, still exists today.
So, in summary, fixing a broken heart isn’t easy, but Dr. Daniel Hale Williams believed that everyone deserves help when they’re sick or injured, so he kept trying, and because he didn’t give up, James and many others got the care they needed. Doing something for the first time can be hard, but when the thing that you’re trying to do is important, when it helps people or makes the world a better place, it’s worth the trouble. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks for asking, Ca’Nylah. Now, we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some older questions from the question jar. You can vote on which one you think we should send out next. You can choose from: how is gold made? Why are flamingos pink? Where does chocolate come from? So submit your vote when the video’s over. We want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week.
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