A Local Teen Helps Other Kids With Heart Problems

18 year old Amanda Librizzi from Manasquan is one special teenager.

Amanda was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition in October of 2010 and has now turned her attention to helping other young people that have cardiac arrhythmia.

Amanda has spent the past two years raising money for research by selling red "I Love Hearts" bracelets.

Amanda says she felt perfectly healthy and her heart was fine until she came down with the flu when she was 16 and couldn't recover. After the flu, she began to suffer from chronic fatique, heart palpitations, and chest pain. For the next ten months she saw several specialists who couldn't figure out what was wrong. Many attributed it to stress and anxiety.

Finally, the family made an appointment at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where a stress test revealed Amanda's arrhythmia.

Amanda is student council president and a senior at Communications High School in Wall and has raised money at school to deliver presents to young patients at CHOP's cardiac ward. The money she raises from the bracelets also helps fund research at the hospital.

Amanda has made some lifestyle changes too. She maintains a diet rich in fruits and veggies and avoids caffeine. She also has to make sure she doesn't raise her heart rate above 120 beats per minute by wearing a wrist monitor. But she tries to keep her life as normal as possible with a great attitude.

Amanda says she still suffers from fatigue and chest pains and doesn't have as much energy as she used to, so she has had to learn to say 'no' to some things and scale back her social life a bit. But overall, she is doing better than she was two years ago and that some weeks she feels almost completely normal.

(Manasquan-Belmar Patch)