background





Tuesday, February 8, 2011

CHD Awareness Week: Day 2!


7 Facts about CHD's
1. CHD's are the #1 birth defect and the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths.

2.  About 1 out of every 100 babies born each year has some type of CHD. About 4-8% of those children will have Tucker's defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.


3.  This year approximately 4,000 babies will not live to see their first birthday because of CHD's, which means that nearly twice as many children will die from CHD's in the U.S. this year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD research.

4.  Though research is still ongoing, at least 35 CHD's have now been identified.

5.  Although some babies will be diagnosed during gestation or at birth, sometimes the diagnosis is not made until days, weeks, months or even years after.  In some cases, CHD's are not detected until adolescence or adulthood.  (Remember that Tucker almost died because his diagnosis was not made sooner.)

6.  It is a proven fact that the earlier a CHD is detected and treated, it is more likely that the affected child will survive and have less long-term health complications.

7.  CHD's strike children without regard for health of the mother/father, economic level, ethnic origin, gender, geographic location, or religious belief.

And one extra:  The American Heart Association directs only $0.30 of every dollar donated toward research.  The remainder goes toward administration, education, and fundraising efforts.  Of that $0.30 that goes to research, only $0.01 goes toward pediatric cardiology research for CHD's!

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts this week.  This is a very special week for us and it means a lot to have you guys visiting and writing in our guestbook.

Please join us in praying for a new CHD family.  We were introduced to Vince & Alexis this weekend and they just found out that they will be having a little girl with HLHS.  They are a young couple dealing with this tough news and trying to make sense of it all.  Please lift up Vince, Alexis, & baby Scarlet!

With love & Heart Hugs!

Trent, Dena, & Tucker

1 comment: