Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

Feb 7, 2016 | Suzanne Ferguson | @suzannerferguson

Today marks the start of Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week! CHD Awareness Week runs from February 7-14, 2016 and is a special week dedicated to raising awareness and support for children born with heart defects. It’s also a time to celebrate our little heart inspirations.

CHDs are the most common birth defect. Each year, approximately 40,000 children are born with CHDs and almost 960 of those are born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Currently, most causes of CHDs are currently unknown; so prevention may not be an option. While the cause of HLHS is also currently unknown, our program is working hard to find the cause which requires participation from HLHS families. Thank you to all you who have contributed. We couldn’t do our work without you!

In honor of this week, we will be highlighting some of the work we are doing to help people with CHDs including ways for people to participate in the research so check back to our blog to find out more. In addition, we are also asking parents and family members to share pictures of their heart heroes on social media. At the end of the week, we will share all of the great photos we receive. So, start using social media to send us pictures and stories about your heroes! (Make sure you follow us on Facebook at Mayo Clinic HLHS and on Twitter @MayoClinicHLHS.)

The Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is a collaborative network of specialists bonded by the vision of delaying or preventing heart failure for individuals affected by congenital heart defects including HLHS. The specialized team is addressing the various aspects of these defects by using research and clinical strategies ranging from basic science, to diagnostic imaging to regenerative therapies.