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Cardiovascular Disease

Beating Heart Disease in Children

Cardiac patient Ryan SheehanRyan Sheehan was born with a complex set of heart defects. By the time he was 13, he was so weak that he needed a wheelchair just to get to his classes. He required surgery, but one of the nation’s top heart centers had turned him down.

Fortunately, Golisano Children’s Hospital was able to give Ryan the surgery he needed. And a few years later, Ryan was attending college and earning a 3.92 GPA in his first semester.

New Treatments and New Hope

One in every 120 babies is born with congenital heart disease. Through the efforts of Golisano Children’s Hospital and other leading hospitals, many children who once would have died from these heart defects are now living well into adulthood.

But this is just the start. We need research to understand how children’s hearts become susceptible to disease. We need new ways to diagnose and treat children with heart problems. And we need to train the next generation of specialists in congenital heart disease.

We can ensure that more and more children with heart defects live healthy, happy, and productive lives—just like Ryan. Your gift to Golisano Children’s Hospital can help.

How Your Gift Can Help

Your gift to Golisano Children’s Hospital will help us provide the most advanced heart care to children throughout our region, while also supporting research that helps children throughout the world.

  • Pediatric Cardiology Programs
    Golisano Children’s Hospital is ranked one of the best pediatric heart centers in New York State, and the University of Rochester Medical Center is one of the top 25 cardiovascular research centers in the U.S. With your support, we can use that expertise to build three critical programs for children with heart disease:
    • Pediatric Electrophysiology Program for children with heart rhythm problems
    • Pediatric Heart Failure/Transplant Program for children with extremely serious heart disease
    • Pediatric Cardiovascular Risk Factor Prevention Program to help prevent heart disease in children
  • Western New York Center of Excellence in Congenital Heart Disease Research
    We have made much progress in repairing heart defects in children. Now, we need to gain a better understanding of how a repaired heart grows and develops. With your support, this Center of Excellence will find new ways to help children with congenital heart disease lead normal, active lives well into adulthood.
  • Pediatric Cardiology Training Program
    Providing children with exceptional heart care requires exceptional doctors. But nationally, there are very few programs to train these doctors. Through the development of our own fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and Surgery, we will be able to prepare the cardiologists and surgeons who will care for the world’s children tomorrow.

More Information

For more information regarding how you can support these important programs, please contact:

Golisano Children's Hospital
University of Rochester Advancement
Phone: (585) 273-5948