Johnstown native pens book after daughter's illness

Katie Smolen, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

Jun. 29—One month after Elizabeth Price and John Harris lost their 6 1/2 -mont-old daughter Riley to a congenital heart defect, Price has released a book to tell the story of their daughter and other CHD warriors during their stay at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Riley was born Oct. 27 with hypo plastic left heart syndrome. According to Price, the syndrome left the left side of her heart small and not functioning and required three surgeries. Riley's kidneys began to fail and she passed away on May 15.

"The CHD Alphabet Book" was released in early June. Price said she realized there were not many medical alphabet books.

"Honestly, I think it was just conversations with the nurses and I was like, 'Oh, you know, I don't think I've ever seen like a medical alphabet book and it would be kind of cool to represent all of the patients here' — because during our time in the hospital, John and I had met so many amazing families, and shared stories with their kids, even though we never really saw their kids we knew their journeys, and they knew Riley's and we became like family," she said. "So I wanted to represent all these kids in some way, shape or form and it kind of just started out very small."

Price said more than 50 families were involved in the project — with three from Johnstown.

"In the evenings while Riley was sleeping, or she was in a procedure or surgery, I just sat and tried to look at all of the names and try to coordinate letters of the alphabet that match that name," Price said, "and tried to get as much of our hospital experience within that book."

She added that she's been getting feedback from some of the families who have children in the book.

"One mom actually messaged me and said, my son is so excited that his picture's in a book and it's at someone else's house and he thinks that he looks really cool," Price said. "So that was wonderful to hear and just some of these parents reaching out and saying, you know, their son or daughter was looking at the book and their face lit up when they saw their picture in the book."

Price's book is available through amazon. A portion of the proceeds will go to the UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh — either monetarily or in the form of an item donation, Price said.