Congenital Heart Defects Facts
- Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are structural problems with the heart present at birth.
- CHDs are the #1 birth defect in the U.S and the #1 cause of birth related infant deaths.
- 1 in every 100 babies is born with CHD, of those 1 in 10 is born with a fatal defect.
- Approximately 1 million American children and adults with CHD and childhood onset heart disease are alive today.
- Despite the high numbers of incidences in CHD’s, funding for pediatric cancer research is 5 times higher than for congenital heart disease.
- In the last 25 years, advances in treatment of heart defects have enabled half a million U.S. children with significant heart defects to survive into adulthood.
Source: http://www.americanheart.org
Useful Websites
Join our TenderHearts’ Yahoo Group
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/tenderheartskids/
Communicate with other Tender Heart members. This is a great way to ask questions and share information.
AHA Website for Congenital Heart Defects
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3028667
Interesting information specifically about CHDs.
Build Your Personal Care Notebook
http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/CareNoteBook/
A great site to help you build a medical notebook full of information about your child.
Care Pages
http://www.carepages.com
Update your family and friends during hospital stays or outside of the hospital with this easy to use website.
Caring Bridge
http://www.caringbridge.org/
Similar to Care Pages, this site helps you communicate with family and friends in a quick and easy way.
Other Information:
Book List for a Hospital Stay (PDF FILE - 28 kb)
Member Advice for Preparing for a Hospital Stay (PDF FILE - 24 kb)
TenderHearts and CHDs on the Dr. Libby Show http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5335123527068482952&hl=en
Growing Up with Congenital Heart Defects (PDF FILE - 27 kb)
*Please note: Tender-Heart Kids is not responsible for any content displayed on other websites.
