UH Rainbow Patient Establishes Fund to Support Heart Care at Hospital
Christy Uher Ferguson was born with tricuspid atresia, a congenital heart defect (CHD) where the heart valve that controls blood flow from the upper right chamber to the lower right chamber does not develop. In 1978, Christy underwent a Fontan procedure performed at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's. This open-heart surgery reroutes blood flow by creating a connecting channel outside of the heart. As a result of Christy's successful surgery, she experienced an active childhood with no physical restrictions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 40,000 children are born in the U.S. every year with a CHD. At UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, the Congenital Heart Collaborative Children's Heart Clinic is helping care for these children here in Northeast Ohio and beyond.
Even with early intervention, children born with CHD face a life-long battle. Christy continues to take over 18 pills a day to treat chronic arrhythmia, congestive heart failure and kidney disease. Now living in Colorado with her husband Jeff, Christy continues to receive outstanding medical care from her team of specialists based in Colorado and Massachusetts.
"While we aren't naive and don't expect a world without heart defects, just consider if one less child had to deal with surgeries, hospitalizations, medications and lifelong care," shared Christy. "Cardiac fetal intervention is one small step toward that goal."
Hope for Future Patients
Along her health care journey, Christy, and her husband, Jeff, have encountered many other CHD patients and families and have witnessed the difficult decisions they make every day.
Christy and Jeff have often questioned how to best to help these families. After years of working with adult congenital care programs, they shifted to envisioning a bold future, and an ambitious goal, of dramatically improving the rate of babies born with CHD.
With this objective in mind, Christy and Jeff returned to their roots and reached out to UH Rainbow Babies & Children's to offer their philanthropic support. They have generously established the Christy Uher Ferguson and Jeffrey A. Ferguson Endowment for Cardiac Fetal Interventions that will support advancements in clinical research and treatment for cardiac fetal interventions to help children receive care before birth and, hopefully, allow them to live a fuller life.