West Orange, Essex County Kids With Heart Disease Get New Pediatric Resource

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Families in Essex County now have a new resource for children with heart conditions: expanded pediatric cardiology services at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey Specialty Center at West Orange.

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 375 Mount Pleasant Avenue in West Orange, a news release stated.

According to hospital administrators, the CHONJ is the state’s “largest pediatric cardiology program” and includes its only pediatric interventionalist, the only pediatric cardiac surgery program, and the only pediatric cardiac electrophysiology program.

Families can schedule an appointment with either Rajiv Verma, CHoNJ’s division director for pediatric cardiology, or Rowan Walsh, a CHoNJ faculty pediatric cardiologist, by calling (973) 322-6900 or (973) 926-3500.

At the West Orange specialty center, 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, administrators said.

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), administrators said.

Verma is the only pediatric interventional cardiologist in the state, administrators said.

“This expansion will offer greater convenience for families in the West Orange area,” said Darrell Terry Sr., President and CEO of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of New Jersey.

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“Residents will now have easier access to state-of-the-art care for congenital heart disease without having to travel outside of New Jersey,” Terry said.

In addition to the West Orange site, CHoNJ also offers pediatric cardiology office visits at other local RWJBarnabas Health facilities including Edison, Bayonne and Newark.

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Photo: Children’s Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center