WVU Medicine Children’s Heart Center reaches milestone, changes lives

One of the scariest things an expectant parent can hear is that there is something wrong with their unborn baby’s heart. That is what led to the creation of the WVU Medicine Children’s Heart Center – to bring together specialists who can provide answers and solutions to ease parents’ fears and create positive outcomes for their children. 

The Center was created in June 2021, following the arrival of Christopher Mascio, MD, chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Jai Udassi, MD, chief of Pediatric Cardiology. Eight months later, the Center performed its 100th surgical case, setting a strong foundation for the future.

“Having a formal Heart Center creates a more coherent care team for our patients. We take a multidisciplinary approach with our patients, understanding that heart conditions can affect the child’s overall health and development,” Dr. Mascio said. “We have instituted more structure to the program, including rounding on patients twice a day, holding grand rounds to learn more about the treatment of conditions, and a weekly conference to discuss cases and make sure our team is performing efficiently to provide the best possible evidence-based patient care.”

The WVU Medicine Children’s Heart Center offers the full range of diagnostic and therapeutic options for congenital heart disease, which begins while the mother is still pregnant. 

“The only thing we aren’t currently able to do is heart transplant,” Dr. Udassi said. “The whole concept for this Center comes from the idea of bringing all the subspecialists who care for the patient under one umbrella. We want everyone to have the same focus and dedication to our patients for them to have better outcomes.”

When the new new WVU Medicine Children's Hospital is complete, the team will share a centralized space in order to promote collaboration and consultation. The space will include a dedicated Cardiac Intensive Care Unit with focused physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses, who are trained to handle cardiac patients.

Stella's Story

This highly specialized team is essential when handling cases like Stella Summerfield of Parsons, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which the left-heart structures are underdeveloped, preventing proper blood flow to the body. 

“We first found out there was an issue with Stella’s heart when I went in for an ultrasound at 27 weeks pregnant,” Ashley Lipscomb, Summerfield’s mother, said. “The ultrasound tech said there was something abnormal about her heart, and they were going to talk to a doctor.”

Ashley’s doctors referred her to WVU Medicine Children’s for further diagnostic scans. She received a fetal echocardiogram, a test similar to an ultrasound that allows doctors to see the structure and function of an unborn child’s heart. From this test, the doctors confirmed the diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Read the full press release >>>