Mending tiny hearts…one of the small miracles made possible by Duke Children’s.

Finding out that your beautiful new baby has a heart defect is one of a parent’s worst nightmares. Thousands of families affected by such a challenge have found extraordinary help at Duke.

More than a thousand children with heart defects are sent to Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center from around the region each year for specialized care by our pediatric cardiology team. They may receive catheterization procedures to patch holes in the heart’s walls, electrophysiologic procedures to treat rhythm disturbances, or complex neonatal surgeries including heart transplantation. In each case, Duke employs state-of-the-art tools and sophisticated techniques to provide the best possible treatment. Visit the Children’s Hospital & Health Center website.

Running a Line to the Heart

In the Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Lab, pediatric cardiologist John Rhodes Jr., MD, runs a catheter from a toddler’s leg to his or her heart to fix a problem called atrial septal defect (ASD), a hole in the wall between the heart’s two upper chambers. Using the catheter, Rhodes places a patch over the hole and closes it--without the need for invasive heart surgery. Rhodes can choose among several different patch devices, enabling him to customize care to meet the needs of each patient. “We have several different devices available for this sort of procedure, some that are not available anywhere else in the state or the region,” Rhodes says. “Our catheterization lab is the best equipped and most experienced such center in North Carolina, and quite possibly the Southeast.”

Leading the Way

This commitment to excellence is what sets Duke Children’s apart in many of its more than 25 pediatric specialties, including neurosurgery, endocrinology, hematology-oncology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, nephrology, dentistry, and dermatology. Duke physicians and researchers have pioneered numerous advances in pediatric care, including the world's first umbilical cord blood transplant, the early use of AZT in children with HIV, and bone marrow transplants for children with severe combined immunodeficiency disease. Duke Children’s researchers also led the way in the development of a simple screening test that can quickly detect more than 20 genetic disorders using a single drop of blood from a newborn’s foot. And the Duke Food Allergy Initiative, launched in 2003, provides comprehensive family-centered patient care, research, and education for patients with food allergies.

When your child is sick, you’d travel to the ends of the Earth to get the best care. Luckily, you don’t have to. Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center provides outstanding care in an attractive, child-friendly environment close to home.

To make an appointment with a Duke pediatric specialist or primary care provider, call 1-888-ASK-DUKE.