A 10-year-old girl who underwent five heart surgeries – including one day after her birth – checked out of a New York City hospital recently after receiving a heart transplant.
Ten-year-old Delaney Soto received a pediatric heart transplant at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone a few days before her birthday. Learn more.
iStock; Everyday Health
Pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD) patients are significantly more likely to have depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than children without the condition, according to new research.
“We know from previous data that there’s a higher prevalence of these conditions in adolescents and adults with CHD, but before this, there hadn’t been any data in children,” says principal investigator Keila Lopez, MD, a pediatric cardiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. “That struck me as odd because the earlier we can intervene, the better the outcome.”
Congenital heart disease is a catch-all term for one or more structural problems with the heart that are present since birth. Affecting about 1 percent of babies born in the United States each year, CHD is the result of the heart or blood vessels near the heart not developing properly in utero. The defects can range from mild, such as a small hole in the heart, to seve