BOSTON — Bruins forward Nick Foligno and his wife Janelle are continuing their mission in giving back to Boston Children’s Hospital, a place the couple says saved their daughter’s life.
The Folignos are partnering with the hospital to fund a two-year fellowship in the Benderson Family Heart Center, where an up-and-coming pediatric cardiologist will be focused on fetal intervention, learning how to catch heart defects in utero, to help create healthier babies.
The fellow will learn under the wings of Dr. Wayne Tworetzky, who the Folignos have gotten to know over the years as he’s the cardiologist for their 9-year-old daughter, Milana.
“We can have a new doctor come into Boston and learn from the absolute best team, and then they take the knowledge they learn … and now they’re teaching more people,” Janelle Foligno told the Herald on Saturday. “The more education we can have coming from the very best doctors, the better any heart center will be because of it.”
Milana’s challenging yet inspiring health journey began when she entered the world in October 2013. She was born with a congenital heart defect, much to the surprise of Folignos after Janelle had what seemed to be a healthy pregnancy.
At just three weeks old, Milana and her parents came to Boston Children’s where she became the youngest baby to receive what her mother referred to as an “experimental” surgery to fix her defect. In total, Milana has had five surgeries, two of which have been open heart. All of them have been performed in Boston.
The fellowship represents a full circle for Nick and Janelle Foligno.
The couple donated $200,000 in December to fund the initial fellowship which will begin in July and operate on the academic calendar. Janelle Foligno said she hopes there will be more fellowships in the future, but she and her husband are taking it two years at a time for now.
Catching a moment of downtime Friday during the Bruins’ West Coast road trip, Nick Foligno said he sees the fellowship as an “amazing” benefit to the community.
“We’re part of this community just like anyone else,” Foligno said in an email, “so to know that this doctor will train under one of the best pediatric cardiologists in the world, in our opinion, is something we feel will help so many others and continue to make BCH one of the best in the country and world.”
Raising awareness around healthy hearts is the mission behind the Heart’s Playbook, a foundation the Folignos created in 2020 to further their support for heart-related organizations.
The couple in 2016 donated $500,000 to Boston Children’s and another $500,000 to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where doctors discovered Milana’s heart defect.
In 2020, Janelle Foligno authored a children’s book titled “Dear Heart: A letter to my special heart” for kiddos facing heart-related challenges. That spurred the creation of the foundation, with proceeds from her book supporting the cause, she said.
The Folignos say they’ve seen progress in terms of heart-related advancements over the years, giving them hope.
The “experimental” surgery Milana underwent when she was born was only being performed at Boston Children’s at the time, but it is now being performed in many heart centers across the country, Janelle Foligno said.
Milana’s most recent surgery — which involved inserting a new valve through her leg — last June wasn’t being done in children until shortly before then, her mother said.
“She has been recovering very well from that and is able to live a fairly normal young lady life, terrorizing her brothers, doing well in school and playing sports,” Janelle Foligno said of Milana.
Support from the Bruins and the entire NHL, Nick Foligno said, is what has pushed him and his wife to get the word out of the work they are doing through the Heart’s Playbook.
The Bruins hosted a “Heart Health Night” at the TD Garden earlier this month. Heart health facts from Tufts Medicine and a segment featuring the Folignos visiting a local elementary school to educate students appeared on the jumbotron during their Feb. 11 game against Washington. The Boston Bruins Foundation also ran a 50/50 raffle to support the Heart’s Playbook.
After signing a two-year, $7.6 million contract with the Bruins in July 2021, Foligno, a 16-year NHL vet, is set to hit unrestricted free agency this offseason.
“Janelle said it best when I first signed here; it felt serendipitous in some ways to come play in the place that truthfully gave me a family,” Foligno said. “Boston has our hearts forever. We feel through The Hearts Playbook we can give some of that love back and slowly repay our gratitude. I think a Stanley Cup would help too!”
