- Congenital heart defects (CHD) are America’s and every country’s #1 birth defect. Nearly 1 of every 100 babies is born with a CHD.
- Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths.
- Congenital heart defects are the leading cause of all infant deaths in the United States.
- Each year over 1 million babies are born worldwide with a congenital heart defect. 100,000 of them will not live to see their first birthday and thousands more die before they reach adulthood.
- 91,000 life years are lost each year in this country due to congenital heart defects.
- The cost for inpatient surgery to repair congenital heart defects exceeds $2.2 billion a year.
- More than 50% of all children born with congenital heart defect will require at least one invasive surgery in their lifetime.
- 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.
- 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.