PHOENIX -- Monday was a very special day for a group of heart patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Eighteen children, all under the age of 2, graduated from the hospital unique congenital heart program.
The program is designed to monitor infants born with heart conditions.
Beth Rumack with St. Joseph’s Hospital says, “Without having that coordinated care and centralized care many infants do not survive with these types of congenital heart defects.”
The graduates all underwent as many as five surgeries to fix the problems with their hearts.
Rumack says, “It really is difficult on the whole family and there's many, many challenges that each of these families go through and our program provides all those components that the families needs to get their infants through these series of surgeries.”
This is the first heart program of it kinds in the southwest.
