Healing Hearts: The Journey From Grief To Life

Hisashi Nikaidoh, MD, Medical Director of Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis in Tulsa, OK, earned his medical degree from The University of Tokyo in 1959 and trained at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City; Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago; and Case Western Reserve University Hospital, Cleveland. He served in Dallas as Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at Children’s Medical Center. Dr. Nikaidoh is internationally known for the innovative surgical procedure that carries his name and his life-long dedication to the care of children, for which he received the Children’s Miracle Achievement Award in 2011. In addition, Dr. Nikaidoh has been a long-time teacher of the Gospel and served on multiple missions, domestic and abroad.

For pediatric heart surgeon Hisashi Nikaidoh, MD, a chance encounter near the hospital cafeteria would stay in his mind forever. The woman he ran into had lost her son in this hospital years earlier. Now she was working in the very place that had been unable to save her child’s life. Dr. Nikaidoh was stunned. He wondered how she could tolerate coming here every day. But respecting her privacy, he never asked the question. After losing his own son in a tragic accident several years later, Dr. Nikaidoh struggled terribly under the weight of his own grief. And his thoughts went back to this woman. What did she know that he could learn—this loving mother who seemed to have made peace with her loss? Healing Hearts shares eight mothers’ deeply honest and gut-wrenching journeys through grief—their pain, anger, attempts at solace with alcohol and bad relationships—as well as their decisions to honor their children by committing to lives of service. These stories, and that of the doctor with whom they share a unique bond, serve as testaments to God’s everlasting love and mercy, and guideposts on our own journeys of grief.