A national congenital heart disease (CHD) awareness campaign, “Miles and Millas Across America Heart Shadow Buddies™: Spreading Hope and Encouragement to Families Affected by CHD,” will visit Brenner Children’s Hospital from May 7 -11.
The program is sponsored by the Angel's Pediatric Heart House (APHH), in collaboration with The Shadow Buddies Foundation and the Congenital Heart Information Network.
“Angel’s Pediatric Heart House is hopeful that through the travels of its resident ambassadors, Miles and Millas, parents with a child undergoing heart surgery will be encouraged by the words and stories of other families facing similar challenges,” said Sonia Perez, founder of the organization. “The families’ stories, messages of hope and encouragement, and pictures will be recorded in a passport diary and shared with all those affected, the medical staff and professionals who care for the child.”
Every child visited by Miles and Millas at Brenner Children’s Hospital will receive a free Heart Shadow Buddy™ from APHH. Every year in the United States approximately 40,000 children are born with a heart defect making it the number one birth defect. For additional information on APHH or to learn more about the Miles and Millas Across America campaign, log on to www.aphh.org. For more information about how to help children with heart defects in our area, contact Kari Crawford at kcrawfor@wfubmc.edu or 336-713-2228.
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Media Contacts: Rae Bush, rbush@wfubmc.edu, or Shannon Koontz, 336-716-2415, at shkoontz@wfubmc.edu or Sonia Perez, Angel’s Pediatric Heart House, 954-318-2020 sperez@aphh.org.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Wake Forest University Health Sciences and Brenner Children’s Hospital. The system comprises 1,238 acute care, rehabilitation, psychiatry and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report. Brenner Children’s was named one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation by Child magazine.
Media Relations
Main Number: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587