Austin's only full-time pediatric heart surgeon, Dr. Kenneth Fox, performs the HeartGift procedures at the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas.  Dr. Fox and his colleagues at Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeons, along with Anesthesiologist Dr. Steven Metcalf of Capital Anesthesiology Associates, Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Karen Wright of Children's Cardiology Associates, and their partners, provide their services at no cost.

In 1999, three friends - Dr. John D. "Chip" Oswalt, Chairman of the HeartGift Board, Ray Wilkerson, Treasurer of the Board, and Jim Hoover - came up with the idea for HeartGift.  The previous year, Oswalt played a role in heart operations that were performed in Austin on five children from Kosovo.

"We realized the need out there for this kind of help,"  Dr. Oswalt says.  "The HeartGift program has really taken off, and has totally surprised all of us with its' success."

Today, a fifteen member Board of Directors, a staff of three, and dozens of volunteers guide the success HeartGift, which operates as a 501(c)(3) non profit.

"Anyone who works with HeartGift gets as much out of it as these heart patients and their parents do, I have no doubt about that,"  Oswalt says.