How do you stop hearts from stopping?

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“Cardiac disease is the most common congenital condition in newborns. Moreover, one to two million children, at one point or another in their first 18 years of life, will have cardiac issues that need attention.”

Anthony C. Chang, MD, MBA, MPH, Medical Director of the CHOC Children’s Heart Institute,
Chief of the Pediatric Subspecialty Faculty Division of Cardiology | Board Certified Pediatric Cardiology

“We are on the forefront in developing a multidisciplinary approach to children and adolescents with acute and chronic pediatric heart disease. With some strategic investments, CHOC can join the top echelon of pediatric heart programs able to advance cardiac care of kids everywhere.”

Richard Gates, MD, Director, Cardiothoracic Surgery, CHOC Children’s Heart Institute

CHOC Children’s is the only facility in Orange County to perform neonatal and pediatric open-heart surgeries. The Heart Institute houses the county’s only Pediatric Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU).

Overview

Every day, in our calling, we look into the eyes of worried parents whose children suffer from heart disease. We must be able to look back, offering realistic hope, compassionate care, and advanced treatment. We stand ready for this work.

Eight out of 1,000 babies are born with a congenital heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, that equals about 35,000 babies born in the United States each year with a congenital heart defect. Children can also acquire heart disease at any time. For children, heart damage may occur as the result of infections such as myocarditis or Kawasaki disease—the leading causes of acquired heart disease—or due to medical conditions like muscular dystrophy or cardiomyopathy.

What is the Heart Institute?

The CHOC Children’s Heart Institute specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cardiac patients from prenatal to 18 years of age. To accomplish this work, we have assembled a premier pediatric heart team consisting of cardiologists, cardiac intensivists, cardiac surgeons, neonatologists, electrophysiologists, anesthesiologists, and nurse practitioners. The Heart Institute also provides collaborative subspecialty consultation services in CHOC Children’s metabolic, neuromuscular, and hematology clinics as various diagnoses in these specialties are associated with cardiac conditions. The knowledge gained from such multidisciplinary participation is then applied to clinical and molecular research, and strong clinical education at the forefront of pediatric cardiology medicine.

 

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