Heart Defects Society Public Service Announcement!
This video, created by the Heart Defects Society, is a public service announcement that is currently airing on CTV in the Windsor and Essex County Area to bring awareness about people that live with Congenital Heart Defects.
What is a Congenital Heart Defect?
This video, created by the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance, describes Congenital Heart Defects and speaks with patients that live with Congenital Heart Defects. Used with permission of the CCHA www.cchaforlife.org
President of HDS Passes Away
Francine Bryar, the president of the Heart Defects Society of Windsor and Essex County, an organization that she co-founded with Melissa Trothen and Claudette Dugas, passed away on September 7th, 2010 from sudden cardiac arrest. She will be missed by all, but her work will go on helping people born with Congenital Heart Defects.
Vision Statement:
The Heart Defects Society of
Windsor and Essex County offers compassionate support within the community, provides educational, emotional and financial resources to improve the quality of life of individuals affected by Congenital Heart Defects.
The Heart Defects Society will aim toward being a high profile non-profit organization in Ontario.
Melissa Trothen Memorial Fund
Applications are being accepted for funding through the Melissa Trothen Memorial Fund. This fund is designed to financially assist families who must travel to London or Toronto for congenital cardiac medical care. For more information click here.
Congenital Heart Defects are the number one birth defect in the world, affecting nearly 1 in every 100 newborns. In Canada, it affects 1 in 70 newborns, and in the Windsor and Essex County area, approximately 1 in 50 newborns has some type of heart defect.
Heart Defects are the number one cause of illness related death in children, doubling the number of deaths from all childhood cancers, and yet, research for heart defects is less than half of that for all of childhood cancers combined.
Very little is known about the genes that cause CHDs. Many research efforts have attempted to pinpoint issues such as maternal illness’ and environmental exposure (air pollution, water, food chemicals) but nothing yet has been shown to increase the risk of CHD. Alcohol, drugs and smoking have more recently been looked at and may increase the risk of CHD.
What we do know is that babies that are born with congenital heart disease are living longer healthier lives due to the advancing medical treatments. There are currently 110,000 adults living with congenital heart disease in Canada.
The Heart Defects Society hopes to shed light on these startling facts, as well as bring families affected by CHDs together for support and understanding.
Please join us in our fight, by emailing us, and sharing your story.
