CHD Awareness week: February 7th-14th

CHD Awareness week is February 7th-14th. I encourage everyone to spread the word about CHD's!!!

What is CHD?

*A Congenital Heart Defect is a problem with the heart's structure that is present at birth.

These defects can involve:

* the interior walls of the heart

*the valves inside the heart

*the arteries and veins that carry blood to and out of the body

CHD Statistics:

* CHD's are America's #1 birth defect. Nearly 1 in every 100 babies is born with a heart defect. (almost 1% of children born each year)



* CHD's are the number #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. 1 in 3 children who die from a birth defect have a CHD.



* This year almost 40,000 babies will be born with a CHD



*In the US, twice as many children die from CHD's each year than all forms of childhood cancer. Yet funding for pediatric cancer is 5x greater!



* From 1993- 2003 deaths from CHD's have decreased by almost 31% due to advances made in research!



* There is not yet a preventive cure for any type of CHD



* Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding, only a fraction of every penny is directed towards CHD research.

CHD's have affected our life forever. It's something I never thought would ever happen to us but it did. This is our life and we deal with it everyday. We have seen the absolute worse that can come from a child having a CHD to seeing Thad grow and thrive with a CHD. Please spread the word about Conginital Heart Defects!! We pray for a cure!