About The Children’s Heart Foundation
Established by Betsy Peterson in 1996, The Children’s Heart Foundation (CHF) is the country’s leading organization solely committed to fund congenital heart research. Since 1996, CHF has funded 41 research projects with more than $3.9 million. CHF is a national 501(c)(3) tax‐exempt charitable organization that does not receive any government funding. The goal of the foundation is to bring health, hope and happiness to children and families impacted by congenital heart defects, the number one birth defect in the United States. This objective is accomplished by funding the most promising research to advance the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of congenital heart defects, the world’s most prevalent and deadly birth defect. For more information, please visit: www.childrensheartfoundation.org.
What is a Congenital Heart Defect?
A congenital heart defect (CHD) is a defect in the heart and/or large vessels present at birth. These hearts may have missing or incomplete parts, be put together the wrong way, have holes between the chambers, have narrow or leaky valves or narrow vessles.
How common are Congenital Heart Defects?
Congenital Heart Defects are America’s and every country’s #1 birth defect. Nearly 1 in 100 babies is born with a CHD.
Each year nearly 40,000 babies are born with a CHD in the U.S.
Each year nearly 1,000,000 babies are born with a CHD worldwide. 100,000 will not live to see their first birthday.
General Facts
More than 50% of children born with CHD will require at least one invasive surgery in their lifetime.
There are more than 40 known types of CHD. There is no known prevention or cure for any of them.
In the United States, twice as many children die each year from CHD than all forms of pediatric cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer is 5 times higher.
Research
In the last decade the death rate from CHD has declined by nearly 30% due to advances in research.
Click HERE to see the research funded by The Children’s Heart Foundation.
