Kirkwood High School student Desmond O’Connor is forever fighting a congenital heart defect, but refuses to let it define his life.
Just 48 hours before his junior year finals last semester, Desmond and his mom traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the first Every 100th Heart Summit, an advocacy convention for congenital heart disease (CHD).
The summit, for which O’Connor was awarded a fully-funded scholarship to attend and represent Missouri, focused on three priorities — the underfunding of CHD, the lack of federal attention to the disease, and more insurance coverage for medical costs that result from CHD treatment…