Letter to Parents from William I. Norwood, M.D. Director of the Nemours Cardiac Center

Dear Parents:

When you first learn your child has a heart problem, your tendency is to feel you are all alone. You hope for the best, but it is hard to keep from thinking the worst. First, I can assure you that you are most certainly not alone. Congenital heart disease is a relatively common condition, affecting about one in every 100 babies born worldwide. In the United States alone, it is estimated that 25,000 children are born each year who need treatment in the first year of life for an abnormal development of their heart.

More importantly, as we enter the new millennium, our knowledge, expertise, technology, and experience, accumulated over the last several decades, can come together as powerful tools to offer an accurate diagnosis and special treatment to correct virtually every form of congenital heart disease, no matter how complicated.

At the Nemours Cardiac Center, we are uniquely organized to treat all forms of congenital heart disease. We sought to develop the kind of center that offers the most beneficial environment and the finest care available for pediatric cardiac patients.

Of course no one can promise the future, but for the first time, there is virtually no heart defect without a potential solution. While nothing is 100% guaranteed in this world, the vast majority of children with heart problems can have a happy, healthy future.

We believe our facilities to be the finest available. More importantly, the expertise which has come together under one roof makes The Nemours Cardiac Center a very special place.

William I. Norwood, M.D., PhD
Director, Nemours Cardiac Center

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