13 babies graduate from cardiac program at Phoenix Children’s Hospital
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Tiny but mighty babies at a Valley children’s hospital are celebrating a huge accomplishment this week!
On Wednesday, 13 babies graduated from the Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program for Infants and Newborns (CHAMPION) at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. All of the babies have required multiple complex heart surgeries at such young ages.
“This is a culmination of an amazing effort that everybody here at the Center for Heart Care has put together. These are our smallest patients, the patients that are at the most critical points in with critical diagnosis, our hardest operations. We have been able to get them through the first two stages of their repairs,” said Dr. Daniel Velez, co-director of Phoenix Children’s Center for Heart Care.
Dr. Velez says the babies only had one pumping chamber in the heart, whereas humans typically have two.
“One pumps blood to the body and the other one pumps blood to the to the lungs. They only have one. So we have to make a rearrangement of the plumbing, if you will, to allow that pump to send blood to the body. That needs to be done in stages because they cannot happen in the very first operation when they’re just out of the womb,” Dr. Velez explained. “We have taken care of them in this interstage program that has increased the survival rate from a mortality of 20% to pretty much zero here in young children.”
One of the adorable babies celebrating the huge milestone is 9-month-old Cash. Cash’s mother, Anh Vu, says her baby boy was at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for two months and has been through two open-heart surgeries.
“We’re so proud of him. Like, he’s so strong. We never expected...but you never know. They’re so little and, like, how they can endure so much,” Vu said. “But he’s been doing so great. He’s been working with PT and everything to get back on track for everything else. So I feel like he’s doing amazing.”
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