Matt Hammitt, Grammy-nominated Christian singer and former frontman of the band Sanctus Real, will appear alongside of his family, tomorrow, Wednesday, September 9, in the second hour of Good Morning America.
ABC producers featured Matt and Sarah Hammitt’s story about son, Bowen, in November of 2010. After months of complications in the hospital following Bowen’s first open heart surgery, World News celebrated Bowen’s heartwarming homecoming just before Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow, GMA will feature ten-year-old Bowen’s progress and highlight the Hammitt family’s new feature length documentary, “Bowen’s Heart,” which will premiere at the Nashville Film Festival the first week of October and is releasing soon.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to share our story about finding hope and purpose through adversity,” says Matt. “We believe it’s a message the world really needs right now.”
“Bowen’s Heart” follows eight-year-old Bowen through his third major open heart surgery, his parents caught in the tension between hoping the surgery will make his life better and knowing it could make things much worse. “Bowen’s Heart” offers a deeply vulnerable view of how chronic illness impacts an entire family, forcing them to answer the question, “Is it worth giving your heart to something that can break it?” Watch the “First Look” trailer below.
Bowen Hammitt was born in 2010 with a life-threatening heart disease, HLHS (hypoplastic left heart syndrome), which means that he lives with only half of his heart. Roughly one in five children with Bowen’s condition live until the age of eighteen, causing his family to face the reality that at any moment life could change. From their experience, Matt and Sarah Hammitt launched a non-profit, Whole Hearts Foundation, to help other families who have been affected by congenital heart disease.
Matt’s timely new single, “Try,” about doubts and fears through difficult seasons, is currently impacting Christian AC and Christian Hot AC radio. The song is from his new independent pop album, Treetop, releasing September 25, 2020 by his own label, Showtalker Media, which also released Bowen’s EP, Safe Right Here, in 2019.
Although the documentary film “Bowen’s Heart” is not yet available, Bowen’s story is detailed in Matt’s new book, “Lead Me,” (Multnomah | Penguin Random House): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602522/lead-me-by-matt-hammitt-foreword-by-bart-millard/.
