Connecticut Children's Blog

Connecticut Children’s Heart Center is with patients for life, starting from before they’re even born and continuing into adulthood. We’re also right around the corner, with six convenient locations throughout the state, and a team made up of leaders in pediatric heart care. That now includes pediatric cardiologist James Enos, MD – who joins the Growing […]

Three out of four kids will have a heart murmur at some point in childhood, but in most cases, it’s nothing to worry about. To explain more, Connecticut Children’s pediatric cardiologist (and American Heart Association leader!) Seth Lapuk, MD, joins the blog. 1. Most heart murmurs are normal and caused by normal blood flow through […]

Haresh Surti may be young at heart, but at 62 years old, he is no kid. So at first, it might seem unusual that he receives heart care at Connecticut Children’s – known far and wide as the state’s only health system 100% dedicated to children. The truth is, lots of adults receive care from […]

Bethany Ty expected a problem when she was pregnant with her second daughter, Jordyn. Her older daughter had been born with a heart issue and is a patient of pediatric cardiologist Olga Toro-Salazar, MD. Care at Connecticut Children’s Heart Center begins before birth – so her pediatric cardiology team recommended screening Jordyn in utero in […]

Growing up means blazing your own trail. For the past 13 years, Connecticut Children’s has been watching Penny Ringrose do just that. Penny, who has Down syndrome, has been coming to Connecticut Children’s since the day she was born, when she was rushed to our nationally-ranked neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for a severe heart […]

One of the scariest parts of any health journey is the beginning: All you have are questions, and all you want are answers. Jennefer Aquavia and Paul Willis know that feeling. This past summer, their 10-year-old daughter, Morgan, starting having seizures – but not like any seizures they’d heard of before. The day they realized […]

One day last October, 15-year-old Lauren Riley was climbing the stairs to class at her West Hartford high school and felt it again: out of breath, dizzy and like she might faint. This was the third time in recent weeks she’d nearly fainted from a flight of stairs. Soon after, she started having belly pain, […]

If needed, even the tiniest babies and those with the most severe heart problems can undergo heart surgery at Connecticut Children’s – including via minimally invasive techniques like video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, or VATS. Helping lead the way is congenital cardiac surgeon Raina Sinha, MD, MPH, FACC, one of just 17 female pediatric cardiac surgeons practicing […]

At the age of 5, Jenna-Lee loves learning from her teachers at school and is excited to head back to the classroom this fall. She also loves dancing, playing piano and belting out her favorite songs. She can often be found helping to care for her younger brother, Indio, age 3, and engaging in spirited […]

Diana and Jarrod Perry remember sitting in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Connecticut Children’s, hearing that their newborn daughter needed open-heart surgery – and that her condition was so unique, specialists from the Divisions of Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, Neonatology, General Surgery, Orthopedics and Plastic Surgery were working together to create a whole new […]