Congenital Heart Defects (CHD's) are defects people are born with.
They affect some 32,000 children every year in the U.S. alone.
There
is no known cause, nor cure for CHD's, the #1 birth defect.
They are the leading cause of birth-defect related death.
Twice as many children die from CHD's every year than
from all forms of childhood cancer combined.
For
unknown reasons, 1 out of every 100 babies is born with a 'broken heart'.
Though sometimes there is a surgical treatment for a particular defect,
many surgeries are not permanent.
Many treatments are not even 'good', they are just 'not bad'.
What can you do?
Support
the cause to help find out how these happen,
and to
find permanent treatments for them
all.
To learn more about
A Day for Hearts: CHD Awareness Day,
and to ask your Governor to make Feb. 14th
" A Day for Hearts: CHD Awareness Day" in your state...Click
here!
CHD LINKS:
Info on Congenital Heart Defects:
Evan's
1st open-heart surgery Oct 12, 2000 |
Angel
Zachary |
|
Brock's
life with HLHS |
Ben's
life with a CHD |
Jonathan's
life with a CHD (all the way over in the UK) |
Resources for Parents of kids with CHD's:
A list of suggested questions to ask the surgeon(s) before open-heart surgery |
A neat story for anyone whose child has a disability or defect |
|
Advice for parents of a child with a CHD (from a member of the PDheart list of TCHIN) |
...for those of us busy parents of CHD children |
|
The
Congenital Heart Information Network (TCHIN) CHD Awareness Info and e-mail support lists here! |
||
Info on the Ross Procedure and Valve Replacement technology: