Mike and his wife Sigalle are proud supporters of Boston Children’s Hospital and their No. 1 ranked Heart Center.
In 2009, their daughter Talia was born with a heart defect, which was diagnosed at an 18-week ultrasound. Three days after Talia was born, she had successful surgery at Children’s. In 2012, she had another successful open-heart surgery at Children’s, related to the same condition. Today, Talia is thriving and an inspiration to the family.
Given this experience, Mike and his family provide support and work to help raise funds and awareness for the Heart Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, while also hoping to help support families who might have a shared experience. Specifically, the family supports the research of Dr. Ram Emani in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, as well as Talia’s cardiologist, Dr. David Brown.
In addition, Mike and Sigalle raise awareness for Boston Children’s Hospital Fetal Cardiology Program, which is dedicated to saving babies still in the womb and helping to solve heart problems before a child takes a first breath. Children’s began performing fetal echocardiography and groundbreaking fetal heart procedures more than a decade ago. They have now done more procedures than the rest of their peer institutions combined, more than 150, and are currently focused on refining this crucial tool—developing better diagnostics and building second-to-none surgical teams and facilities. Fetal heart abnormalities that are detected before birth, like Talia’s, allow doctors to plan for medical or surgical intervention once the baby is born. This also improves the chance of survival after delivery for babies with serious heart defects.
If you’d like to make a gift to support the Heart Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, click here.
Mike Reiss 