Welcome to WorldCongenitalHeart.org!

Prior to the 1940's, a child born with a heart defect was often doomed to an early death in childhood. To operate on a beating heart to repair the all too frequent holes in the wall was long deemed impossible. Palliative measures such as the Blalock-Taussig shunt extended the lives of these tiny victims with congenital heart defects, but they did not correct the inherent problem of incorrect plumbing of the chambers within the heart. In the 1950's, the pioneering techniques for open heart surgery and the heart-lung machine developed by Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. John W. Kirklin spread around the world, saving the lives of millions of children in the fifty-odd years hence.

The goal of open heart surgery in the early days was simply to save the lives of children with congenital heart defects, and the goal was largely met allowing most to live into adulthood. Unfortunately, residual heart problems frequently arise within this population, and congenital heart disease support and advocacy organizations have arisen worldwide. Below are links to the congenital heart disease organizations around the world for the now grown-up, adult survivors of pediatric cardiac surgery.

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