Families in West Orange and the surrounding areas will soon have an important new resource for children with heart conditions. Starting April 6, the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey (CHoNJ) will expand cardiology office visits to West Orange. Pediatric cardiology services will be available at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey (CHoNJ) Specialty Center at West Orange, located at 375 Mount Pleasant Avenue.
Families can schedule an appointment with either Rajiv Verma, MD, CHoNJ’s division director for pediatric cardiology, or Rowan Walsh, MD, a CHoNJ faculty pediatric cardiologist by calling (973) 322-6900 or (973) 926-3500.
At the West Orange specialty center, Drs. Verma and Walsh will provide diagnostic services, consultations and management of children’s heart conditions including congenital heart disease – holes or other heart defects that occur before birth. The facility will offer non-invasive testing such as echocardiograms to view images of the heart, and electrocardiograms (EKGs) to check the heart’s electrical activity.
By expanding their reach into the community, CHoNJ hopes to continue the growth of what is already the state’s largest and only full-service pediatric cardiac program. Based at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, CHoNJ is the only place where New Jersey children can receive open heart surgery, cardiac catheterizations, treatment for congenital heart diseases, and electrophysiology (treatment for heart rhythm disorders).
Dr. Verma, who can now be seen in the West Orange practice, is the only pediatric interventional cardiologist in the state and he specializes in minimally invasive heart procedures using catheters — thin, flexible tubes inserted through a small opening in the skin — rather than traditional surgery.
“For 19 years, the catheterization lab at CHoNJ has provided cutting-edge transcatheter therapy for all forms of congenital heart disease in children and adults. Every FDA-approved device related to transcatheter therapy of congenital heart disease is available at CHoNJ,” explains Dr. Verma.
“This expansion will offer greater convenience for families in the West Orange area,” said Darrell K. Terry, Sr., President and CEO of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of New Jersey. “Residents will now have easier access to state-of-the-art care for congenital heart disease without having to travel outside of New Jersey.”
In addition to the West Orange site, CHoNJ also offers pediatric cardiology office visits at a number of other local RWJBarnabas Health facilities including Edison, Bayonne, and Newark.
Approximately one percent of U.S. children have some form of congenital heart disease, and nearly a third of those youngsters require critical medical attention within their first year. Such children often require monitoring and treatment into adulthood. If you have a concern about your child’s heart please reach out to us at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey or visit us online at https://www.rwjbh.org/heart.
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