In the specialized Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital heart center operating room are, left to right Peter J. Gruber, MD, PhD; pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and professor of surgery, Yale School of Medicine; Jeremy Asnes, MD, director, pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory, Yale New Haven Hospital and Associate professor, pediatrics (Cardiology) at Yale School of Medicine and T-Y Hsia, MD. chief, pediatric cardiac surgery for Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and Yale Medicine.
New Haven, CT (Feb. 19, 2019) – Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital (YNHCH) today announced that it has become the first hospital in Connecticut to receive certification from the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) to perform pediatric heart transplants. UNOS serves as the nation’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network under federal contract.
Last summer, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, in collaboration with Yale School of Medicine and its clinical practice Yale Medicine, recruited world renowned leaders in pediatric cardiac surgery to join the impressive team at the children’s hospital. T-Y Hsia, MD, is Yale Medicine’s (YM) new chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at YNHCH and professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine (YSM); and Peter J. Gruber, MD, PhD, is YM’s associate chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at YNHCH and professor of surgery at YSM. They join Jeremy Asnes, MD, YM’s director, Cardiac Catheterization Lab at YNHCH and associate professor Cardiology, YSM, and the rest of the new YNHCH Heart Center team.
Children and families from Connecticut will now have access to the best in pediatric cardiac care close to home. In addition, adults with congenital heart disease requiring heart transplants will receive the best care possible through a collaboration between pediatric and adult heart transplant physicians and surgeons. By coalescing all the specialists’ expertise within the new Children’s Heart Center, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital is now the only destination for comprehensive care in heart care in newborns, infants, and children in Connecticut. A full spectrum of medical and surgical treatments for children with congenital heart defects, cardiomyopathy and other heart conditions round out the expertise of this team.
“We’re treating not just the patient but the family, to help parents understand their child's medical condition, what can be expected from surgery and the entire care process, and especially how to partner with families to reduce the stress of having a critically ill child,” said Dr. Hsia.
