The Mission of Rock For The Heart is to:

– Promote and support research intended to prevent sudden cardiac arrests due to congenital heart disorders in children.

– Research and determine why congenital heart defects are the number one birth defect for infants.

– Research and develop better and more effective procedures to treat children that are born and diagnosed with a known defect.

Did You Know?

– Heart defects are the most common birth defect and the No. 1 killer of infants from birth defects.

– Cardiovascular disease ranks as the No. 2 cause of death (only behind accidents) for children under age 15.

Even with those statistics, pediatric heart disease is still underfunded. Money is needed to conduct research to investigate why it is the most common birth defect and what can be done to effectively prevent deaths.

In patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, the heart developed an extra electrical pathway that tells the heart to speed up or to beat irregularly. Patients can have symptoms ranging from light-headedness to having no symptoms at all. It is rarely life-threatening, however patients can die suddenly, as Matthew did.

Currently, families are offered three options to treat children born with WPW depending on severity of symptoms:

– Medication

– Ablation therapy

– Do not intervene other than monitoring the patient if he has no symptoms; if he becomes symptomatic then act on one of the two above.

For more information on congenital heart defects please visit the following sites:
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Heart Center
Heart Rhythm Society
PACES
American College of Cardiology