A pediatric heart surgeon in Boston has unique perspective into his patients. When he was a baby, his life was saved by another heart surgeon. That story propelled him into the operating room, determined to help other children just like him. Dr. David Hoganson is a cardiac heart surgeon with some of the youngest patients at Boston Children's Hospital. He walks parents through complex operations, familiar to him through experience both professional and personal."I have a large scar down the middle of my chest, so you know forever something happened," Hoganson said. At 5 weeks old, Hoganson was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect, or VSD. It's a hole in the wall separating the two lower chambers of the heart. It causes pressure or reduced oxygen to the body.At the time, doctors planned to operate when he was 2 years old, to give him time to grow. But at 17 months old, they realized he wouldn't make it. Tests revealed there wasn't just one hole but many holes. So his surgeon got creative."Found the largest of the VSDs and laid a large patch on that area and was able to incorporate almost all of the other VSDs with the second patch," Hoganson said. It worked and from a cardiac perspective, he was healthy. Hoganson doesn't remember many follow-up appointments and said he had a normal childhood. A conversation with his mother at 12 years old changed the course of his life."I remember having a conversation with my mom and sort of going through all this and I thought then, 'I would like to do this for somebody else,'" Hoganson said. He joined the team at Boston Children's Hospital in 2014, treating babies like Thomas Jordan. Born with congenital heart disease, Hoganson operated on Thomas at just 4 days old. "There wasn't a single day that our son was here that he did not come to check on him," Amanda Jordan, Thomas' mother, said of Hoganson."That's the type of doctor he is, just sitting down going through everything and making you feel comfortable," Jordan said.Knowing he's been where their children are is a comfort for many parents."My commitment is very high because I'm doing what someone did for me. I have totally normal heart function, and that gratitude for having the chance at a normal life is really what drives me," Hoganson said.Hoganson also has an engineering degree and likes to come up with creative solutions to problems. He's now testing a new procedure using veins from a baby's own umbilical cord to stabilize blood flow in the hearts of those born with a complex defect.Just a few months ago, he met the surgeon to saved his life 43 years ago. Dr. Bruce Paton is now 92, living in Colorado and Hoganson said it was an incredible moment for both men.