The Heart Center at Boston Children’s Hospital is consistently ranked No. 1 in pediatric cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report. The team of 72 cardiologists, eight cardiac surgeons, 13 cardiac anesthesiologists and 42 cardiac fellows perform nearly 1,400 heart surgeries, 700 electrophysiology procedures and more than 1,400 catheterizations every year. The hospital has a 29-bed cardiac intensive care unit. In 2012, Boston Children’s petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for special approval to use a new ventricular assist device. The patient who received the VAD was the first child in America to return to school with the device. The hospital also boasts a 99.6 percent survival rate for closed heart surgeries and a 98.5 percent survival rate for open heart surgeries.
