- Approximately 1 in every 100 babies is born with a congenital heart defect. Each year approximately 40,000 babies are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect. More than 4,000 will not reach their first birthday, and thousands more die before they reach adulthood.
- There are more than 40 different types of congenital heart defects. Little is known about the cause of most of them. There is no known prevention or cure for any of them. More than 50% of all children born with a congenital heart defect will require at least one invasive surgery in their lifetime.
- In the United States, twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD.
- One percent of all babies born will have a heart defect of some sort. That is four times the number of children diagnosed with a childhood cancer. And four times as many will die from their heart disease. Funding for pediatric research is painfully inadequate, even disproportionate, to the child population.
So, now you are wondering what you can do to help, right? :) Besides educating yourself and your child-bearing friends about the above statistics, why not....
- donate to a CHD organization
- donate an item to a CHD auction (ie: the one Camp del Corazon holds)
- register your customer loyalty cards (ie: Vons or Ralphs card) to donate Scrip to a CHD organization
- or, the most simple way you can help...SPREAD THE WORD!
-Encourage expecting parents to ask for additional information on heart defects during their (MANY) OB visits!
-Post Lyla's story, or the story of another heart baby in your life, on your Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or other public forum accounts!
-Forward this information, or any CHD awareness email, to anyone and everyone in your address book.
Thank you for your support over the last year. We had no idea what we were in for this time last year, but I wouldn't trade our journey for ANYTHING.
Links to CHD organizations:
Children's Heart Foundation (www.childrensheartfoundation.org)
1in100 (www.1in100.org)
Camp del Corazon (www.campdelcorazon.com)
