Stanford Medicine Children’s Heart Center

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Stanford Medicine Children’s Heart Center

From performing our first pediatric heart transplant 35+ years ago, to pioneering lifesaving surgery. and the world, our outcomes are outstanding.

Our world-renowned physicians at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health’s Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center have performed more than 2x the number of pediatric heart surgeries in recent years, when compared with the national average. When it comes to heart transplantation, we have performed our first successful pediatric heart transplant more than 35 years ago, and since then we have performed over 440 heart transplants in children of all ages. We’ve been the highest pediatric heart transplant volume center in California for nine consecutive years. And despite treating some of the most complex young patients in the U.S. Specialties:

• Pediatric cardiology
• Pediatric heart surgery
• Fetal cardiology
• Pulmonary artery reconstruction
• Heart transplantation
• Cardiovascular tissue disorders care
• Single ventricle care
• Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries care
• Pulmonary hypertension care
• Alagille syndrome care
• Congenital heart disease care
• Coronary anomalies care
• Bloodless cardiac surgery

To learn more or schedule an appointment, visit heart.stanfordchildrens.org. You can also reach our Heart Center by calling (650)-721-2121. Pediatric Cardiology - (650)-721-2121

Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery - (650)-724-2925

Heart Failure/Heart Transplant Care (PACT)- (650)-721 2598

International Referrals - (650)-709-3546

Please get involved by sharing your inspiring patient milestones with us. Submit your story ideas to social@stanfordchildrens.org. Digital Media Policy: http://bit.ly/digitalpolicy

Notice of Nondiscrimination: http://bit.ly/2e3UkCb

01/14/2026

The Pediatric Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program at Stanford Medicine Children's Health is a leading program worldwide helping children with end-stage lung disease who would require a lung or combined heart-lung transplant to increase their chances of survival.

Our program is the only pediatric lung and combined heart-lung transplant program in the Western United States to offer lung or combined heart-lung transplantation to children from infancy through early adulthood.

With lung and heart-lung transplants being rare, our team proudly stands out for its expertise, having conducted over 60 pediatric lung transplants and more than 40 heart-lung transplants since our inaugural pediatric heart-lung transplantation in 1986. This volume places us as the leading pediatric lung and heart-lung transplant center in the Western United States.

Our posttransplant patient survival exceeds the national average, despite treating some of the most complex lung/heart-lung transplant patients.

Learn more about our Pediatric Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Program: https://bit.ly/44nNd1z

01/05/2026

As we welcome a new year, we want to honor the courageous journey of our heart patients, the dedication of their families, and the transformative expertise and empathy of our care teams. Thank you for inspiring and trusting us with your child’s care. The Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center wishes you and your family a year filled with health, joy, and hope. ❤️

12/23/2025

This season, we’re sending warm wishes to our heart patients and their families, our compassionate and dedicated care teams, and the Stanford Medicine Children's Health community. May your holidays be filled with hope, healing, and moments of joy. Have a happy and healthy holiday and New Year. ❤️

12/18/2025

Our final feature in our 2025 Highlights series is a patient story featuring Mikayla, one of our heart transplant recipients.

Mikayla was 4 years old when she was referred to a Stanford Medicine Children's Health pediatric cardiologist after her pediatrician detected a heart murmur. “I didn’t think it was a big deal, since her doctor reassured me that many people are born with murmurs,” Mikayla’s mom, Stephanie, recalls. “And then suddenly, I got a call, and it was the cardiologist. She told me that Mikayla had restrictive cardiomyopathy. My daughter would eventually need a heart transplant to survive. I was immediately in tears.”

In June 2023, the family received the call they’d been waiting for: A heart was available for Mikayla. Two days later, Mikayla’s new heart beat in her chest for the first time, giving the little girl a second chance at life.

Today Mikayla loves to ride her scooter and bike. She sings, dances, and adores arts and crafts, and when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Mikayla doesn’t hesitate: “I want to be a doctor at Stanford.”

Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3KG5HUb

12/16/2025

Continuing with our 2025 Highlights, meet Marcus, who was only about 1 day old when he was diagnosed with a rare form of congenital heart disease. After he failed a standard newborn congenital heart disease test, Nikola Tede, MD, a Stanford Medicine Children's Health pediatric cardiologist, ordered an echocardiogram, which revealed that Marcus had total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR). With TAPVR, the pulmonary veins that carry blood to the heart from the lungs do not connect in the right spot during fetal development. The only treatment is urgent neonatal heart surgery.

Marcus was transported by the Stanford Children’s Critical Care Transport team to Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center for urgent heart surgery. Dr. Tede had put in a call to Michael Ma, MD, chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Stanford Children’s, and the two discussed Marcus and the heart surgery, which involves moving the pulmonary veins to their correct location in the back of the heart.

The heart surgery went just as planned. “The first hour after the heart surgery, Marcus was on a bunch of wires, but each day he overcame another obstacle,” Marcus’s mom, Lena, says. “It was pretty magical for a baby to have open-heart surgery and be back home within 10 days.”

Learn more about Marcus’s surgery and recovery: https://bit.ly/4rAgz6D

12/12/2025

Our second 2025 Highlight is Hazel’s incredible journey. At just 3 weeks old, she was given six months to live due to a rare combination of heart defects known as tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) with pulmonary atresia and MAPCAs, affecting blood flow and oxygen levels.

Her parents discovered Stanford Medicine Children's Health's Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center and Frank Hanley, MD, who pioneered the unifocalization procedure for repairing such challenging defects. This technique is the cornerstone of our Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction (PAR) Program, transforming survival rates and life quality. Today, our skilled team—trained by Dr. Hanley—carries forward this legacy.

Hazel’s surgery was complex, involving an unexpected fifth defect—a malfunctioning aortic valve. This made her a great candidate for a new, multidisciplinary surgical approach that Michael Ma, MD, our chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, has developed in partnership with the Stanford School of Engineering’s Cardiovascular Biomechanics Computation Lab, led by Alison Marsden, PhD, and scientists from Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center’s Basic Science and Engineering (BASE) Initiative.

“Together, we created a 3-D design of Hazel’s aortic valve, which included a complex computational fluid dynamic simulation of the way her valve opened and closed, and the ideal geometry of her leaflets (flaps that make up the heart valve),” Dr. Ma says. “In surgery, we reshaped her aortic valve to match the simulation.”

Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3MgzrHN

12/10/2025

We’ve had some exciting heart news and content in 2025, and we’re celebrating with our Highlights series.

First up, it’s the highlight of our division chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Stanford Medicine Children's Health, Michael Ma, MD, who is renowned for his leadership and exceptional surgical skills in tackling some of the most intricate and rare heart conditions in children of all ages.

Whether in the operating room or conducting research, Dr. Ma is deeply committed to providing children with heart disease the best outcomes, even when other institutions have deemed their cases untreatable.

Beyond spearheading the heart surgery team at Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, Dr. Ma is very involved in three pivotal programs for children with complex heart conditions. The first is the Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction (PAR) Program. This flagship program is celebrated globally for transforming survival rates and quality of life for patients with intricate pulmonary artery anomalies including, but not limited to, patients with tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) and MAPCAs, transposition of the great arteries with MAPCAs, single ventricle anomalies with MAPCAs, and pulmonary artery stenosis associated with Williams syndrome or Alagille syndrome.

The second program is the Complex Biventricular Reconstruction Program, offering pioneering surgical solutions to help bring hearts with complex defects to as close to normal anatomy as possible. The third program is the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies (PACT) program, which supports patients with heart failure and heart transplantation needs.

Dr. Ma takes immense pride in the groundbreaking work and the remarkable outcomes achieved by the heart team at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. His guiding thought in every complex surgery reflects his deep dedication to his patients: “I will operate on your child as if they were my own,” a thought he often shares with parents.

Get to know Dr. Ma! https://bit.ly/4iUV6Sd

12/05/2025

After receiving lifesaving treatment at Stanford Medicine Children's Health, 17-year-old Rishi Radhakrishna is giving back in the form of music, turning his heart condition into hope for others.

Rishi was born with pulmonary stenosis—a congenital heart defect in which the pulmonary valve between the heart and lungs is abnormally thickened, increasing pressure within the heart’s right ventricle and making it harder for blood to flow from the heart to the lungs.

Now an intern in the lab of Casey Gifford, PhD, a Stanford School of Medicine scientist, Rishi was inspired to play at a piano concert to help raise funds for congenital heart disease research at Stanford Medicine. He played a set featuring classic rock hits from Billy Joel and Led Zeppelin, combining his passion for music with his hope of uncovering the underlying genetic causes of congenital heart disease.

Read more about Rishi’s story: https://bit.ly/4rdq1wH

11/27/2025

Today, we’re giving thanks to our resilient heart patients and their families, our compassionate and dedicated care teams, and the Stanford Medicine Children's Health community. We wish you all a warm and wonderful holiday. From all of us at the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. ❤️

11/20/2025

During a routine newborn checkup at 6 days old, Penelope’s pediatrician identified hypothermia (a low body temperature) and referred her to their community hospital, El Camino Hospital, for further evaluation. Upon arrival, Penelope’s parents learned that her condition required advanced testing and specialized care, which led to her referral to the nationally ranked Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

After thorough testing by multiple teams and specialists, the team at Stanford Medicine Children's Health confirmed that many of Penelope’s health issues were related to her heart. Specifically, her ductus arteriosus, which connects the aorta and pulmonary artery, did not close after birth and was so large that it posed a risk of heart failure.

Shaun Setty, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon and surgical director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit and director of Global Cardiac Care at Stanford Children’s, performed what he describes as a straightforward surgical procedure to address Penelope’s patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

“When assessing Penelope prior to surgery, she exhibited rapid breathing, expending energy at high levels, and was not able to feed by mouth or do the typical things that other babies of her age are able to do,” recalls Dr. Setty.

Learn about how Penelope has been doing after her heart surgery. (Link in comments).

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween from our Outpatient Heart Center and PCU 200! 🎃 We wish you a very spooky holiday 👻

09/08/2025

Beth Kaufman, MD, is a highly specialized cardiologist at Stanford Medicine Children's Health who leads the Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Program for children with cardiomyopathy (where the heart becomes unusually weak or stiff, making it hard for it to pump blood efficiently to the rest of the body). A small group of children with cardiomyopathy may have symptoms of advanced heart failure or serious arrhythmias, or abnormal heartbeats. Childhood cardiomyopathy can occur at any age, but it’s most likely to present itself in a child’s first year of life or during the teen years.

As the director of the Pediatric Cardiomyopathy Program, Dr. Kaufman works diligently to catch and treat cardiomyopathy early, control her patients’ symptoms, slow or stop its progress, and avoid complications. The program’s ultimate goal is to help children live well with cardiomyopathy, and under Dr. Kaufman’s leadership, our multidisciplinary team of experts are able to provide care for children with all types of cardiomyopathies, from infancy to age 18 and into early adulthood.

Dr. Kaufman also lends her extensive knowledge to the Pediatric Advanced Cardiac Therapies (PACT) program to help pediatric patients who are experiencing heart failure and would be candidates for a heart transplant. In the PACT program, which is one of the first heart centers in the nation to innovatively combine heart failure and heart transplantation into a single program, we provide world-class, highly individualized care to children of all ages with heart failure and heart transplantation needs.

Discover more about Dr. Kaufman and the programs in which she’s providing expert care at Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center: https://bit.ly/4kujmdR

Address

725 Welch Road
Palo Alto, CA
94304

Telephone

+16507212121

Website

http://heart.stanfordchildrens.org/

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