CHD Awareness Week - Proposed Facebook Statuses

Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) Awareness Week is Feb 7 - 14, 2010.

To continue with the mission of Awareness, below is a list of proposed facebook statuses. Many of us in the support group will post a new status every day the week of Feb 7 - 14. Please feel free to join in! Of course, you can post these any time or even post a variation. if you've got ideas for facebook statuses send us a note. We'll update this page so others can use the status as well.

Facebook Statuses (thanks to Jennifer Cooper for compiling this list!)

CHD’s are the #1 birth defect. (March of Dimes)
CHD’s are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. (March of Dimes)
About 1 out of every 100 babies are born each year with some type of CHD. (Children’s Heart Foundation)
Nearly twice as many children die from CHD in the US each year than from all the forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD. (Children’s Heart Foundation)
The American Heart Association directs only $0.30 of every dollar donated toward research. The remainder goes toward administration, education, and fundraising efforts. Of that $0.30 that goes to research, only $0.01 goes toward pediatric cardiology for CHD. (Children’s Heart Foundation)
This year approximately 4,000 babies will not live to see their first birthday because of CHD’s. (Children’s Heart Foundation)
Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding, only a fraction of a penny is directed toward CHD research. (Children’s Heart Foundation)
Though research is still ongoing, at least 35 defects have now been identified.
Although some babies will be diagnosed during gestation or at birth, sometimes the diagnosis is not made until days, weeks, months, or even years after. In some cases, CHD is not detected until adolescence or adulthood. (March of Dimes)
It is a proven fact that the earlier CHD is detected and treated, it is more likely the affected child will survive and have less long term health complications. (March of Dimes)
CHD is an anomaly of the heart that is present at birth. CHD’s cause one or more portions of the heart to develop abnormally
CHD strikes children without regard to economic level, ethnic origin, sex, geographic location or religious beliefs

Personal Facebook Statuses

Link to your child's story. if you don't have a blog let us know and we'll post your child's story on this website. You link to it there.
Remind people of ways they can help
Link to a friend's story or any one of the fabulous sites dedicated to CHDs