The Heart of a Child: What Families Need to Know about Heart Disorders in Children. This item is unavailable.The Heart of a Child: What Families Need to Know about Heart Disorders in Children

For the anxious parents of children with heart problems, this book holds the message that there is hope for the treatment of children with heart disorders. Of the 25,000 infants with heart defects born each year in the United States - and the additional 40,000 children diagnosed with heart problems - nearly all benefit dramatically from early diagnosis and treatment. In 90 percent of cases, the problem is either too mild to need treatment or can be completely repaired. Surgery - when needed - is now rapid and effective. And techniques for treatment and management continue to emerge each year. Written by experts in paediatric cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Rochester Medical Center, "The Heart of a Child" describes the latest developments in understanding and treating heart problems in children. Through case examples, question-and-answer sections, detailed drawings, and careful explanations, the authors explain the causes of heart disorders, how they are discovered and diagnosed, how they affect the child, and how they are treated. They offer a thorough summary of what parents, health professionals, teachers, and other family members need to know to be effective partners in the care of a child with a heart problem - from understanding basic physiology to evaluating options for treatment. The overriding principle of modern treatment is to restore the child who has a heart problem to the best possible health with the minimum use of tests and procedures. "The Heart of a Child" sets out to help parents understand the challenges, the options, the decisions - and the many reasons for hope. Topics include: recognizing a heart problem; the developing heart; risk factors for heart defects; heart problems in children; treatments of heart defects; the child grows up - living with a heart problem.

Catherine A. Neill, M.D., F.R.C.P., is an emerita professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Edward B. Clark, M.D., Wilma T. Gibson Presidential Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah and medical director of the Department of Pedicatrics, is also the Medical Director of Primary Children's Medical Center, at the University of Utah Medical Center.

Carleen Clark, R.N., is a school and public health nurse.