Episode 53: EV-ICD: Groundbreaking Work to Save a Child’s Life

Being innovative sometimes means being willing to do something different, like using a device in a way it hasn’t been used before. That’s exactly what a team at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria did to save a young child’s life.

Join us as we share the story of a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind surgery: the successful implantation of an extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (EV-ICD) in a toddler, the youngest and smallest patient in the world to receive this device. After suffering cardiac arrest at home, the child was diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes life-threatening heart arrhythmias. The innovative procedure not only saved the child's life but also set a new global precedent for how the EV-ICD can be used in younger, smaller patients.

Host Shelli Dankoff chats with Mark Plunkett, MD, chief of pediatric and congenital heart surgery at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois, and Sunita Ferns, MD, director of pediatric and adult congenital electrophysiology at OSF HealthCare Children’s Hospital of Illinois, about the extraordinary work of their team and what this means for the future of treating pediatric arrhythmia patients.

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