What Congenital Heart Disease Means for Your Child
Parents need and deserve complete information to get the right care.
By Lisa Esposito, Staff Writer |June 21, 2017, at 12:01 a.m.
Congenital heart defects are the most common of all birth defects. But if your child is diagnosed with one, it feels like you're entering strange, uncharted territory. Instead of welcoming your newborn to a cozy nursery at home, you're glued to the hospital, immersed in a crash course on an unfamiliar condition such as ventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot or hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Under pressure, you're deciding where to take your child for potentially life-saving surgery and ongoing care.
As a new U.S. News analysis shows, patients needing risky operations do better at high-volume hospital centers where more congenital heart surgery procedures are performed. Below, a top cardiac surgeon and parents who've been there provide insight on questions to ask and what you should look for when making these vital decisions.
https://health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/2017-06-21/what-congenital-heart-disease-means-for-your-child
