Fetal Heart Program
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A problem with your baby’s heart can overwhelm you. You want answers. You want an experienced infant heart care team to help you on this journey.
At UVA Health Children's, we’re with you and your baby every step of the way. We offer the largest fetal heart program in Virginia. Our team boasts some of the most experienced specialists in the state.
Expert Care for Infant Heart Conditions
We provide a range of services. Our team includes:
- Maternal-fetal medicine
- Pediatric cardiology
- Neonatology
- Pediatric cardiovascular surgery
Advanced Treatment Options for Babies with Heart Defects
At UVA Health Children's, we offer many specialized programs and advanced treatment options to help babies born with congenital heart defects. Including those born with complex heart conditions, like hypoplastic left heart syndrome, tetralogy of Fallot, or transposition of the great arteries.
Some of the treatment options that we can provide include:
- Mechanical circulatory support (ECMO)
- Complex valve repairs
- Cardiac catheterization program
- Heart rhythm surgery
- Heart transplant
We care for patients in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Richmond, and Winchester.
Care & Support from the Start
If your baby has a heart problem, we’ll work with you and your doctor to plan your care and discuss your options.
Our care team guides you through all stages of your baby's care:
- Identifying conditions during pregnancy with fetal echo
- Providing immediate care after birth
- Continuing treatment and support as your baby grows and develops
- Home monitoring for babies with complex single ventricle defects
Penn's Catheter Procedure Helped Her Heart
Penn's heart wasn't fully developed when she was born. But, a catheter procedure done at UVA helped open her right ventricle, allowing her heart to grow normally. Today, she doesn't need the two other heart surgeries she was scheduled for.
[MUSIC - ANALOG HEART, "WITH LIGHT"] So my husband Shawn and I, we have three kids-- Wade, Scout, and Penn. Both of our little girls were born with undiagnosed congenital heart defects.
I just happened to be at work one day, and she had mentioned that Scout had an ear infection and she was taking her into the doctor's. Then I got a text message saying, you better get over here. The surgery that she was going to require had only been done at that point, I believe, one or two times on a child as small as her in the country.
Scout didn't have a problem with kind of the plumbing of her heart. She had a problem with the electricity of her heart causing her to have a bad heart rhythm. So she was cared for by our neonatology team along with our heart rhythm specialist, Dr. George McDaniel. We were able to give her various medicines to stabilize her blood pressures and her heart rates and get it under control.
The night before the surgery, at 11:00 PM, she flipped into normal rhythm. And she's been cleared now at age six of any heart condition, and I'm just forever grateful.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So we had our third, and her name is Penn. And she was our second to be born with an undiagnosed congenital heart defect, and hers was much more serious than Scout's.
The right side of her heart did not develop prenatally, and there was some real discussion as to what kind of outcome she would have.
They said, what hospital would you like to go to? And my husband and I both said, immediately, UVA.
We pulled into the emergency room, got into the ICU. I kind of felt like, phew, everything's going to be OK.
There was one doctor, Dr. Peter Dean, who thought that there was a possibility that, if we did this cath procedure, that they could balloon open her right ventricle. So if we could get blood flow into the heart, there was a chance that we could give her enough time to have her heart grow.
Dr. Hainstock is our interventional cardiologist who was able to perform a cath a few days later. Fortunately, it all went very well, and we were pleased with the outcomes. And fortunately, her right ventricle has kind of continued to grow.
It worked. It worked beautifully. We were told, on year two, that she does not need her other two open-heart surgeries. Her heart has grown to normal size because of that cath procedure. It has been the most incredible experience. They took something that is so scary-- it's your worst nightmare as a parent-- and they made us feel comfortable and capable.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Infant Heart Surgery
Our experts perform surgeries and procedures to treat infant heart problems, including:
- Aortic arch repair
- Arterial switch
- Atrial septal defect (ASD) repair
- Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt
- Cardiac catheterization
- Cardiopulmonary bypass
- Coarctation repair
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
- Fontan procedure for single ventricle anomalies
- Glenn procedure for tricuspid atresia
- Heart rhythm surgery
- Heart transplant
- Norwood procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome
- Pacemaker and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) implantation
- PDA closure
- Tetralogy of Fallot repair
- Valve repair/replacement
- Ventricular assist device (VAD)
- Ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair