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Singing in a choir strengthens breathing capacity, decreases depression and anxiety, and improves perceived school functioning in children born with a single heart ventricle, according to a feasibility study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago published in Pediatric Cardiology. This intervention, including in-person and online singing and breathing instruction, was developed and trialed in collaboration with Northwestern University Bienen School of Music.

Children born with a single ventricle face physical and psychosocial challenges related to the three surgeries they undergo, ending with the Fontan procedure when they are around 3–4 years old. Over the course of these three surgeries, surgeons reroute oxygen-poor blood from the upper and lower body and connect it directly into the pulmonary artery, bypassing the heart completely. This allows blood to flow passively to the lungs, driven by normal breathing and pressure changes rather than a heart pump.

While lifesaving, the surgeries may result in weaker lungs. Affected children often have decreased exercise tolerance, tiring easily with activity. Over time, the passive blood flow to the lungs can contribute to heart failure and may lead to the need for a heart transplant. Many of these children have neurocognitive differences, such as ADHD, also as a consequence of their single-ventricle heart disease.

, MSCI, director of the Cardiopulmonary Exercise Lab and Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Lurie Children's, and professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

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