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It Takes a Team

Early detection of congenital heart disease gives David and Elizabeth the time to make important decisions for their twins, who undergo open-heart surgery minutes after birth.

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In this video series learn about the Cardiac Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Parents, nurses and doctors, each from their unique perspective, talk about the work being done here. Use the links below to navigate through the series.

Videos in this Series

Transcript: It Takes a Team


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Elizabeth Proctor, Mother: We were extremely lucky to find out ahead of time.

David Proctor, Father: If you know early, you can learn. You can make some decisions.

Jack Rychik, MD: For The Fetal Heart Program has come about to push back, if you will, the time of onset of detection and care of congenital heart disease.

Elizabeth Proctor: Once the babies came, it was sort of amazing how quickly everything happened.

Thomas Spray, MD: The babies were literally minutes old. We can do complex open-heart operations.

Elizabeth Proctor: The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life was handing over my child to the anesthesiologist.

Susan Nicolson, MD: I think one of my major jobs is to get to know that patient and their family and to make certain that the separation is smooth and comfortable for the child, most importantly, and secondarily for the parent.

Sarah Tabbut, MD: There are only a few institutions in North America that can maintain a separate cardiac intensive care unit.

Elizabeth Proctor: The CICU is an amazing place.

David Proctor: It sounds odd, but we actually felt comfortable on a couple of occasions when we got there, because we knew that we were in the best hands once we were there.

Lynn Boyle, RN: This nurse is sitting there at the bedside with them for 12 hours a day, seven days in a row. That’s pretty remarkable to be able to do that.

Elizabeth Proctor: The nurses would constantly say to us, you know, go get some rest. Or, you know, don’t worry, leave the bedside.

Lynn Boyle, RN: You can leave and know that your child is being cared for and loved and picked up and hugged and bathed and truly cared about. As a child—as a person, that doesn’t happen everywhere and that happens here.

Sarah Tabbut, MD: The energy we have in this institution, in this cardiac center, it’s just phenomenal.

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