The Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital provides care for children up to 18 years old who need medical or surgical help for conditions involving the heart, lungs and airways.
It is one of two units in the UK to carry out heart and lung transplants on children.
We are the only centre in the country to provide all cardiac care from conception, through birth, childhood and on to adulthood.
Children’s heart unit services
Most of our patients come from the North of England, but children are referred to us from all parts of the UK and Ireland for treatments such as:
- Heart and lung transplants
- Bridge to transplant and recovery programme
- ECMO life support
- Cardiac surgery
- Critical care (PICU)
- Anaesthesia
- Cardiology
- Heart rhythm treatment (for problems with the rhythm of the heart beat).
- Respiratory disease
Our adult congenital heart service also provides services for adults who were born with a heart defect.
Highly specialised services
Mechanical support
The Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) programme makes use of mechanical devices to do the heart’s job in seriously ill patients.
Congenital heart disease
We are unique in the UK to have both an adult Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) centre and a paediatric PH centre. This means we can manage a wide range of patients including adults and children.
The unit cares for children waiting for congenital heart surgery that cannot be performed in any other centre. We treat children who are in the most at-risk group, who may also need mechanical support following surgery.
Play facilities
There are a range of play facilities for patients having treatment at the Children’s Heart Unit in Newcastle. Including playroom and outdoor play area with modern indoor and outdoor play equipment.
The facilities were developed after fundraising by the the family of Seb Hollingsworth, a young boy who was treated at the Freeman Hospital’s specialist unit.
Facilities in the play area
The play facility, which includes technologically-advanced indoor and outdoor equipment. It has special zones for all ages, including:
- messy areas
- ‘tech zones’ with video games and widescreen 3D TVs,
- play kitchen
- arts and craft area
- a mini outdoor “city” with a railway station and painted train tracks and roads.
Sensory room
The play facilities add to the sensory room which includes special lighting, sounds and equipment to help stimulate all the senses of children on the unit.
Fundraising
The play facilities were developed thanks to funding from the Seb4Chuf fund. The charity raised £330,000 to create the facilities, but is always looking for more funding for future projects.
You can find out more and how to donate at the Seb4Chuf website
Contact us
For more information on the Children’s Heart Unit, please contact:
Telephone: 0191 244 8479
Useful websites
Parents’ group
A Parents’ Group linked to the Children’s Heart Unit was set up to provide a good forum for parents to give their views about the unit, and for the unit’s Matron to feed back information on what is happening with the unit.
You can follow the Facebook page here.
