CHUF History Page
Founded in 1979, The Children's Heart Unit Fund's aim is to raise money to buy equipment for the children's heart unit at The Freeman Hospital. Sometimes small pieces of equipment to help nurses on the wards, sometimes larger items to help doctors with diagnosis or surgeons with complex operations and after care.
In some instances it is used to pay salaries of medical support staff essential to the efficient running of the unit and the development of research. Heart defects comprise one of the most common groups of congenital abnormalities in new-born babies. Many of them are tiny premature infants, who up to a few years ago would not have survived.
Out of 33,000 babies born in the northern region each year around 350 will require treatment in the children's heart unit at Freeman. Around 200 small babies and children are operated on each year by the two children's heart surgeons at Freeman Hospital.
The procedures are highly technical, complex and often carry a very significant risk because of the severity of the heart problem. In addition to the more routine forms of cardiac surgery, Freeman Hospital undertakes children's heart transplant operations for the northern half of Britain. Many extremely sick children come to the unit at Freeman Hospital for assessment, for transplantation, and some require to be supported by special heart pumps within the Intensive Care Unit while waiting for transplantation.