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How Your Support Helps Transform Heart Care

Upashana and her mother
“When Upashana grows up, I want her to study hard and do whatever she would like to do in life. What my daughter has undergone, no child should have to go through,” says her father Ganesan. Upashana was born with a heart condition that required surgical correction. She received heart care at Children’s HeartLink partner site G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital in Coimbatore, India.
Published November 29, 2021

Every 5 minutes 10 children are born with congenital heart disease. Only 1 of those children has access to heart care. You can help change that!

Together, with generous donations from supporters like you, we can pursue groundbreaking work to improve access to pediatric heart care in underserved parts of the world.

A Population Health Program
Recently, we partnered with the Kerala Government and Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence Amrita Institute of Medical Science and Research (AIMS) to develop and implement an innovative population health program to address congenital heart disease (CHD) in newborns in the state of Kerala, India.

“Parents in India want the same thing parents everywhere want for their children; relief from suffering and the promise of a long and healthy life.” — R. Krishna Kumar, M.D., pediatric cardiologist at AIMS, Children’s, HeartLink partner site in Kochi, India.

Prior to the program the infant mortality rate in Kerala was 12 of every 1,000 babies born. That is double the mortality rate of babies born in the U.S.

Screen. Treat. Reduce Infant Deaths.
After the program, which included building a system that incorporated CHD into the newborn screening process and helped to create capacity to treat and care for babies newly diagnosed, the mortality rate dropped from 12 to 7 babies per 1,000 births. A remarkable improvement that gives children born with a heart defect a fighting chance!

Your Gift Matters
Your year-end gift helps provide children in underserved communities with access to heart care. Without you many children with CHD will not have access to the heart care they need to survive and thrive. Make your gift now.

Donate Now

Read the paper published on our work in Kerala, India to learn more about the program which could be adapted in other underserved communities around the world, saving more children by diagnosing and treating CHD early in life.