Who Discovered Congenital Heart Disease?
Congenital heart disease impacts a surprising amount of people within the world’s population—but who is responsible for identifying this disease?
There are some diseases that have truly detrimental impacts on society, and congenital heart disease is one of them. Though you might not have it yourself, a large number of people have this disease from early on and have to struggle with its many side effects. For some, the disease can be fatal, but treatments do exist. Of course, before we could treat this disease, we needed to understand it. Let’s learn more about this disease and its history.
Congenital Heart Disease: A History
When congenital heart disease was first discovered, we didn’t know all that much about it. We knew that it existed, and we knew that it was dangerous. Today, we have a variety of medical treatments based on this initial discovery. Let’s explore who led this amazing discovery.
What is Congenital Heart Disease?
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a condition that is recognized by a defect in the overall physical structure of the heart or surrounding areas. This condition can be mildly inconvenient or lead to lifelong problems, which is why it is such a point of interest for those in the medical field. Given the fact that it impacts new children every single day, plenty of people are looking for ways to learn more about it—but before we could learn more, we had to learn what it really was.
Who “Discovered” Congenital Heart Disease?
To fully understand congenital heart disease, we needed to understand its origin. This particular disease was born with humanity, but we didn’t know that it really existed until Dr. Helen Taussig, a pediatrician got involved. Pairing this with a publication from Dr. Mause Abbott, congenital heart disease was well and truly put on the map.
How This Information Helps Us
The discovery of congenital heart disease is something that has helped to push us along for some time now. The reality is that this is a complex and versatile disease that impacts a lot of people differently. For some, it is a part of their childhood. For others, it is a lifelong concern that influences the way that they live. Having the understanding that congenital heart disease is a condition—and a common one—grants us the ability to better understand it and take more active steps towards treatment. Until we identified it, we did not have a dedicated commitment to treating it, and this one development made all the difference.
The Takeaway
The reality is that congenital heart disease is a condition that impacts so many lives—not just the people who have it, but their families and friends. The people who played a role in discovering this disease and learning about the many ways that it impacts us have helped us to take active steps towards improving the way that we approach this disease. The more that we know, the better that we can become at treating it, and we owe all modern developments to the scientists that identified it for us.