Customer Reviews

The Parent's Guide to Children's Congenital Heart Defects: What They Are, How to Treat Them, How to Cope with Them

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My son Noah was diagnosed in-utero with a VSD and at the age of 9 days received his first sonogram and EKG. The VSD closed - confirmed at his 1-year appointment, but was diagnosed with mitral valve stenosis at this same appointment. This book guides one through diagnosis, parental coping, issues/caring for the newly born, answers many of your obvious and not so obvious questions, surgery - what to expect/how to prepare and the likely impact your childs' condition may have on his/her life basis current knowledge. It also is full of annecdotal stories from parents that are going through the same thing you are as well as commentary from pediatric cardiologists. Additionally, there are resources from the internet to camps in the appendicies. No doubt, the book is at times depressing, but it is also enlightening. The undelying message is you need to be prepared for what you and your child are yet to experience and it is a map to guide you in this area

My new born daughter was recently diagnosed with Complex Congential Heart Defects and naturally I wanted to learn as much as I could about the topic. I purchased several related boks through Amazon.com and founf this one to be very relevant and answered lots of appropriate questions for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Heart Defects of any type. It is very thorough and covers every defect I am aware of.

I loved the question/answer format of this book. It made an overwhelming and complicated topic far more understandable. I wish this book had been available when our son was diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Vessels 12 years ago. We had so many questions, and while the doctors and nurses were super, a resource like this would have been invaluable becuase the questions don't stop when you finally leave the hospital! I'm sure the authors will keep the book as up-to-date as possible, but just know that cutting edge research is improving the methods of diagnosing and treating chd's every day. So, if the treatment protocol your doctor recommends isn't listed, don't panic. You might be benefiting from the latest research! When our son had his surgery, the Arterial Switch operation, which is now standard procedure, was only being done at a handful of hospitals around the country. Kids born with chd's today have a much better outlook thanks to the advances made by research. And, with more research, tomorrow will be even better.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a child that has a congenital heart defect. This book is easy to read and explains anything and everything you need to know about a heart defect.

My husband and I searched everywhere for answers. This book answered all our questions.

We have a non-profit for congenital heart defects. This is the book we tell all parents to get!!...

After my 5 year old son was diagnosed with AVSD, I engrossed myself into extensive research about his condition. While I discovered many other books with great information, I found this one to be the most inclusive, definitive and easy to interpret. The Q&A are broken down under each chapter specifically dealing with certain attributes one might be facing with a diagnoses; not all,but most of my questions were answered after reading this book. Highly, highly recommended.
J.B.