CHD Awareness Week

Most people think of this week/month as the month of Valentine's or Black History Month, but slightly less known, this is the week of Congenital (present at birth) Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness week - with tomorrow 2/14 being CHD Awareness Day. I never really knew much about heart defects until last March when Ethan was diagnosed with his heart defect - Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

To "celebrate" this week and help raise awareness, 2 of my friends (whose babies also have HLHS) are being interviewed by TV stations to share their own journey with raising a baby with a CHD. And here are some interesting facts about CHD's taken from a site to petition the media to raise more awareness. If you'd like to help by signing the petition, please visit this link: http://www.gopetition.com/online/16298.html

-Congenital heart defects are America's #1 birth defect.

-Nearly one of every 85 babies is born with a CHD in the US.

-Congenital heart defects are the Number 1 cause of birth defect related deaths.

-This year almost 40,000 babies will be born with a congenital heart defect in the US. 4,000 of them will not live to see their first birthday.

-91,000 life years are lost each year in this country due to congenital heart defects.

-The cost for inpatient surgery to repair congenital heart defects exceeds $2.2 billion a year.

-Congenital heart defects occur frequently and are often life threatening, yet research into them is grossly under funded.

-Only one penny of every dollar donated to the American Heart Association goes towards congenital heart defect research.

-Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding only a fraction of a penny is directed toward congenital heart defect research.

-More than 50% of all children born with a congenital heart defect will require at least one invasive surgery in their lifetime.

-There are 35 different types of congenital heart defects. Little is known about the cause of most them. There is not yet a cure for any of them.

-In the U.S., twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD.