Daphne T. Hsu M.D. Brings Lifesaving Pediatric Heart Transplantation to Montefiore Medical Center
Last August, the New York State Department of Health approved Montefiore's application to bring pediatric heart transplantation to the Bronx. This significant advancement allows specialists at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) - recently ranked among America's top children's hospitals - to treat congenital or acquired heart abnormalities which affects eight in every 1,000 children, and is still the leading cause of death in children.
CHAM's Heart Surgery Team and Heart Center program was already established as among the most active in the region in treating congenital and acquired heart defects in children. But the hospital needed the expertise and state approval to undertake the most drastic of remedies for severe heart conditions that require heart transplantation. That's one of the many reasons Dr. Daphne Hsu was recruited to CHAM. She is now the Co-Director of the Pediatric Heart Center and is the Pediatric Cardiology Division Chief. Now, after undergoing lifesaving heart transplant surgery, five-month-old Adrian Flores went home with a new heart on March 26, after he underwent the first pediatric heart transplant ever performed in the Bronx.
Dr. Hsu said her colleagues "take care of the sickest of the sick kids whose hearts don't work. We make sure patients have the proper medication and therapies, particularly the post-transplant patient who needs additional care. We make a lifelong commitment to keep the new heart healthy."
