Stanford Medicine Children’s Heart Center

04/16/2026

On April 14, Stanford Medicine Children's Health held a flag-raising ceremony in the Dawes Garden to honor organ donors, celebrate recipients, and raise awareness for the importance of organ donation. The event was held by the Pediatric Transplant Center as part of a series of activities planned during National Donate Life Month, celebrated each April.

Many heart patients were in attendance, including Darren and Camila, who are awaiting heart transplants, and Lizzy Craze, who was the first patient at Stanford to receive a heart transplant, in 1984.

Sisters Wynnie and Annie Vo, who each received a heart transplant at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, also attended the ceremony. Wynnie and Annie were both diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart disease. Wynnie received her heart transplant 10 years ago, and Annie received hers in January of this year.

“I think it’s really cool that we get to be here and get to experience life together. And that that’s all made possible because of our donors,” Annie said. “We are so, so grateful to our donors and their families, to all the doctors who have helped us throughout this journey, and the Child Life Specialists,” Wynnie added.

Anyone can register to be an organ donor, leaving a lasting legacy of hope and life. To learn more and to register, visit https://registerme.org.

04/13/2026

Occupational therapists (OT) in Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center support our young patients with congenital heart defects, including those in heart failure, across their entire care journey. Our OT team’s role includes maximizing functional independence, developmental milestones, feeding and swallowing, quality of life, and safety. They focus on enhancing fine motor skills, play skills, endurance, and independence in self-care activities. Additionally, our dedicated occupational therapists work closely with parents and caregivers to help empower them while in a challenging hospital environment. They help patients and families navigate life with heart conditions—one meaningful activity at time. 

04/06/2026

Nolan Turner is a patient who, despite being at high risk for oral feeding difficulties due to his medical history of prematurity, prolonged intubation, and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) with bowel perforation, and having a single ventricle congenital heart defect, worked diligently with his feeding therapist at Stanford Medicine Children's Health to develop his pre-feeding and nutritive oral feeding skills at the earliest safe opportunity. Nolan’s progress and skill development would not have been possible without the advocacy, strength, and engagement of his parents, who were deeply involved in every decision related to his oral feeding goals and plan. Our Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center team was amazed that Nolan was able to take far more nutrition by mouth throughout his three-month hospital stay than ever anticipated. Way to go, Nolan!

At Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center, our inpatient doctors, our nurses, an occupational therapist, and improvement scientists collaborate to prioritize overall feeding education, family engagement, and positive oral experiences for the babies in the Heart Center, like Nolan, who may have otherwise never had the opportunity to orally feed. Learn more about our program: https://bit.ly/4s50o02

03/27/2026

Our Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center teams met for the 7th annual dedicated Heart Center Research Day to showcase the remarkable research being undertaken by our colleagues throughout the heart center. Participants represented cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesia, imaging, and basic science disciplines. The research topics this year highlighted the many collaborations between our researchers and the industry at large including the Pediatric Apple Watch Study, launch of the THRIVE program, advances in heart transplantation and ventricular assist devices, and non-invasive monitoring of patient lung mechanics.

03/17/2026

Our heart doctors at the world-class Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Stanford Medicine Children's Health are renowned for introducing innovative approaches and partnering with scientists from various departments at Stanford Medicine to fuel advances in heart disease management and improve patient outcomes.

Learn more about how our Stanford Children's cardiothoracic surgeons contributed to the adaptation of engineering software for congenital heart disease and how they use it before surgery to help improve patient outcomes:

03/13/2026

Richard Mainwaring, MD, is a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Stanford Medicine Children's Health, actively involved in one of our flagship programs—the Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction (PAR) Program. Alongside the other Stanford Medicine Children’s Health PAR specialists, Dr. Mainwaring performs complex surgical procedures to rebuild arteries and vessels in the lungs of children with pulmonary artery anomalies, aiming to achieve near-normal heart-lung function. The Stanford Children’s PAR Program team is dedicated to improving health and wellness for children and adults with severe pulmonary artery issues.

The PAR Program is founded on unifocalization—a surgical technique pioneered by our Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center executive director, Frank Hanley, MD. Through this innovation, Dr. Hanley has dramatically transformed surgical outcomes and quality of life for these challenging patients, elevating the survival rate to over 99%. Before unifocalization, many patients were considered to have no options.

Beyond performing this lifesaving procedure, Dr. Mainwaring leads the PAR Program team’s efforts to track patient outcomes and share insights. This helps other centers explore the potential of unifocalization and enhances the understanding of how pulmonary artery reconstruction procedures can aid a diverse range of patients, including those with tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia and MAPCAs, transposition of the great arteries with MAPCAs, single ventricle anomalies with MAPCAs, and pulmonary artery abnormalities associated with conditions like Williams syndrome and Alagille syndrome, given the significant advancements made by Dr. Hanley over three decades.

Learn more about Dr. Mainwaring and our PAR Program: https://bit.ly/47bacOu

02/19/2026

For more than two decades, Frank Hanley, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon and executive director of the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center at Stanford Medicine Children's Health, has been working at the edge of what’s possible for our pediatric heart patients. He pioneered unifocalization, a surgical approach for one of the most complex heart conditions known, called pulmonary atresia with major aortopulmonary collaterals. His innovation radically changed outcomes for babies who were once considered untreatable.

In honor of Heart Month, Paul A. King, CEO of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, conducted a Q&A conversation with Dr. Hanley on what unifocalization is, why families so often learn about it too late, and why early referral, experience, and timing can mean the difference between a full life and a lifetime of limitation.

Read the Q&A: https://bit.ly/4u35vAr

02/18/2026

Meet Leen, a vibrant 7-year-old who, despite severe congenital heart and lung challenges, found her way to a brighter future at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. Our expert team, led by Arvind Bishnoi, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon and clinical assistant professor, successfully performed a groundbreaking 10-hour heart repair and lung transplant that opened new possibilities, not just for Leen, but for other children around the globe facing similar conditions.

Thanks to the top-notch expertise and unwavering dedication of our heart and lung specialists, Leen can now run, play, and embrace life like never before.

Dive deeper into Leen’s journey:

Life-saving treatment unlocked. Learn how experts at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health saved a child’s life with a highly intricate heart repair and lung transplant, offering hope to other patients with the same condition. (Partner Content)

02/11/2026

Ziyan Liu, a 19-year-old sophomore at Johns Hopkins University, has transformed her challenging medical journey as a young heart transplant patient at Stanford Medicine Children's Health into an inspiring novel, "Heartbreaker, Heartbroken," with the support of Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area.

Ziyan was diagnosed with an unbalanced atrioventricular canal—a congenital heart defect—when she was a couple of months old. Her health journey took a turn in 2015, when at age 9 she was listed for a heart transplant.

Following a successful heart transplant in July 2017 at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, Ziyan was referred to Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area to receive a wish and, after careful reflection, wished to become an author.

Ziyan’s wish celebration was held in December 2025 at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, where she was able to sign her book and take pictures with the team that inspired her novel.

Learn more about Ziyan’s Make-A-Wish experience and novel: https://bit.ly/465v9do

02/03/2026

During Heart Month, we proudly highlight our unwavering commitment to providing world-class cardiovascular care at Stanford Medicine Children's Health. Our team tirelessly works to transform lives with unparalleled dedication and expertise.

With over 600 faculty and staff, including cardiothoracic surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists, CVICU and cardiac specialist nurses, and radiologists dedicated to cardiac imaging, every visit embodies our promise to treat each heart with the utmost care and compassion.

Whether performing life-changing heart transplants or guiding families through routine checkups, our care remains at the forefront of innovation and patient success. Every interaction and procedure reflects our dedication to health, healing, and hope, continually striving to offer exceptional care for our patients and their families.

Children’s hearts are our priority, and together with our patients and their families, we make extraordinary strides in heart health.

See our impact in the last year at-a-glance.

01/26/2026

The Stanford Medicine Children's Health Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center is expanding surgical expertise with the hire of Antonio Amodeo, MD, professor of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and director of the Pediatric Thoracic Organ Transplantation Program.

Dr. Amodeo is a global leader in cardiac innovation, specializing in advanced procedures like heart transplantation, artificial heart implantation, and VAD (ventricular assist device) implantation. With thousands of operations and pioneering achievements, such as the world’s first smallest implantable artificial heart in a child, his expertise is invaluable.

Dedicated to delivering the best outcomes for children with advanced heart disease, Dr. Amodeo focuses his research on advancing VAD therapy and myocardial recovery programs. “I aim to offer new hope to patients with heart failure worldwide by pushing innovation to unprecedented levels,” he says.

Join us in welcoming Dr. Amodeo and celebrating his commitment to providing pioneering care to children with complex coronary heart disease!

VAD CHDCare

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