Each year, an estimated 1 in 100 babies are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect; CHDs are the most common birth defect and the number one cause of death from birth defects during infancy. Nearly twice as many children die from congenital heart defects as from all childhood cancers combined, yet research for cancer receives five times the funding. This is due in large part to the lack of awareness most people have about congenital heart defects.
I have just recently found out that one of my blogging friends, Alexis, lost a daughter to this type of heart defect. Here are some of her words...
When you see those two little lines on the home pregnancy test you are thinking about morning sickness, labor, diapers, breastfeed or formula, will I make a good parent? No one ever imagines that their thoughts would be consumed to echocardiograms, cardiology visits, medicine schedules, surgery, and the endless thought "will my child die".
We lost our 3.5 month old daughter, Allison Grace, to complex CHDs on August 13, 2002. We endured 32 days in the Lutheran General Hospital NICU in Park Ridge, Illinois, endless doctor visits and watching our little girl fight through open heart surgery at 3 months old. We have lived through the horrible nightmare of burying a child, had our living children lose their innocence and endure the harsh realities of life at 3 and 6 years of age and somehow have managed to remain a family through it all.
Help spread awarness of Congenital Heart Defects!!
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