Children's Healthcare Foundation

A congenital heart defect is a common birth defect that affects the structure and functioning of the heart. Some congenital heart defects in children are simple (a hole in the heart) and don't need treatment, whereas others are complex malformations that may require several surgeries performed over a period of several years. All these problems can affect the breathing, feeding, and weight of the child. An infant with CHD may have the following symptoms:  ● Abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) ● Cyanosis- A bluish tint to the lips, fingernails, and skin ● Shortness of breath ● Tiring quickly upon exertion ● Poor weight gain  There is no known cause of congenital heart defects but experts assume that they may occur when a mishap occurs during heart development soon after conception. Heredity, smoking, drinking alcohol during pregnancy, diabetes, certain medications, and Rubella are some of the major reasons that may result in CHDs in children.  ...

The birth of a child often brings happiness in the lives of parents as well as his near and dear ones, but this is not true for every child. This happiness is often taken away from the parents whose children are born with some birth defects such as Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).CHD is a common type of birth defect that affects the structure of a baby’s heart and how it functions. Congenital Heart Disease may vary from mild to severe and according to Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in every 4 babies born with a heart defect has a critical congenital heart defect. The kids who suffer from a critical CHD need surgery or other procedures in the first year of life.  However, one good thing related to this disease is that it can be treated, and that also in most cases for life. Sometimes the defect is diagnosed during pregnancy and it becomes easy for the doctors to treat the child. Over the past few years, the treatments and follow-up care for CHD hav...

“India has the largest share of deaths of children under the age of five. Health is improving globally, but India still has the most child deaths”.  To read more click on the link below. #SaveLittleHearts https://children-healthcare-foundation.blogspot.in/2018/04/health-is-improving-globally-but-india.html

Save Little Hearts The beauty of giving with your whole heart to our cause is that in turn, you save and make a child’s heart whole and full of life again. Just a click away, visit our GIVE page and open your heart to # SaveLittleHearts with us today! http://www.genesis-foundation.net/Give.aspx

Heart disease is the leading killer of Indian adults.  A medical worker administers polio drops to an infant at a hospital during the pulse polio immunization programme in Agartala, capital city of India's northeastern state of Tripura, January 18, 2015. The programme aims to immunize every child in the country under five years of age with the oral polio vaccine. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey (INDIA - Tags: HEALTH SOCIETY) India still has the largest share of deaths of children under the age of five, new data from the Global Burden of Disease (2016), published early on Friday morning in the medical journal Lancet, shows.The GBD is the only annual, comprehensive, peer-reviewed assessment of global trends in health, providing global and national estimates on more than 330 diseases, causes of death, and injuries in 195 countries across the world. The study is coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle (USA).Mortality ra...

Parvati and Shyamji were elated to be expecting their first child. However, their happiness seemed short-lived. Their newborn daughter began to turn blue right after her first cry, as she came into this world. The doctors then told the couple, that their baby was suffering from a congenital heart defect . Though shocked, they were determined not to lose hope. They were willing to go the extra mile and do whatever was in their power to find answers. After the initial stabilization period, the baby was transferred to a private hospital where an echo revealed that she was suffering from a transposition of great arteries, a condition wherein the two main blood vessels of the body, the aorta and the pulmonary artery arise from the wrong chambers of the heart. Original Article Reference: http://www.genesis-foundation.net/The_Story_of_Parvati.aspx

Thank God for the Small Miracles!  Shiv Seventeen years is how long Lalmati and Mohanlal had waited for a child to be born to them. Their happiness knew no bounds when Lalmati’s pregnancy was confirmed. They couldn’t wait to meet their little bundle of joy, and it seems, neither could he, for their little son, born at 28 weeks, was born 12 weeks premature, in his impatience to cuddle with his loving parents.  The premature birth itself was a terrifying ordeal for the family, with their tiny baby weighing only a kilogram, and it meant constant vigilance by doctors in the intensive care unit. He was being treated in a level III intensive care unit, under the care of vigilant neonatologists. Over the next 23 days, Shiv, as he was named by his parents, continued to lose weight despite tube feeding and the best of care afforded by the doctors. He was finally diagnosed as having a heart disorder known as patent ductus arteriosus(PDA). PDA occurs when there is an u...