Congenital heart disease remains the number one cause of death from a birth defect in the United States. The MGHfC team works with DOCF to address this problem by:

• Providing pediatric/congenital heart care across the left spectrum fetus to adult
• Ensuring all children needing pediatric heart care can receive it, whether that be through providing surgical care for lower complexity cases as well as complex cases in teenagers, or having Boston Children’s handling the more complex for young patients (for example, heart transplants).
• Leading and collaborating in activities that will continually improve patient care regionally and internationally

Freely offering assistance and actively responding to requests for help related to the care of patients with suspected or actual pediatric/congenital heart disease.

$5,000 per surgery is the minimum portion of each surgery that is not covered by insurance reimbursement. The unreimbursed cost for each surgery can be much higher, depending on each patient’s insurance coverage, as well as the severity of each patient’s health situation. DOCF funds unreimbursed surgical costs for 15 pediatric cardiology patients per year.

As part of its support for improving care for pediatric cardiology patients in New England, the David Ortiz Children’s Fund supports the Echocardiography Quality Improvement Project (EchoQIP), a program designed to reduce diagnostic errors among infants and children across multiple pediatric heart centers throughout New England.

Why this program?

Pediatric heart surgery has led to significant reductions in deaths caused by congenital heart disease, however, rapid surgical or medical treatment requires accurate diagnosis of the heart defect. Diagnostic errors or failure to diagnose heart disease places infants and children at risk for permanent injury and death. Diagnostic errors are responsible for a large percentage of hospital complications, cause greater patient harm than medication errors and are a leading cause of permanent organ damage. Diagnostic errors are frequently caused by incomplete or incorrect cardiac imaging by echocardiography. Training and following standard procedures have significant positive impact on error rates.

Thank you for your interest and support of the David Ortiz Children’s Fund. We value and respect our supporters and want you to be comfortable and confident sharing contact information with us.

Any information collected on the David Ortiz Children’s Fund website will be used only for the purposes stated.

The David Ortiz Children’s Fund does not sell, distribute, or transfer personally-identifiable information obtained through our website from you (our “Visitor”) to a third-party organization. The only exception to this is when it is necessary to share certain information for processing online donations.

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In several areas of the David Ortiz Children’s Fund website, Visitors have the option to sign up or register for specific information or events. Visitors will be asked to provide, at a minimum, name, email address, and zip code/postal code. In return for providing this information, Visitors will gain access to additional resources and may be able to participate in other activities such as posting comments on our site.

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David Ortiz Children’s Fund Donor Privacy Policy
On occasion, the David Ortiz Children’s Fund recognizes and thanks donors publicly. If you would prefer not to be recognized, or that your gift remain anonymous, please let us know. Your wishes will be respected.

If you would prefer not to receive fundraising communications from David Ortiz Children’s Fund, simply let us know by email at info@davidortizchildrensfund.org.

The David Ortiz Children’s Fund maintains physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with industry best practices to guard website visitors’ personally identifiable information.

Certain states require written disclosures for nonprofit organizations soliciting contributions. Individual state disclosures are below.

Florida: A copy of the official registration and financial information may be obtained from the Division of Consumer Services by calling toll-free, within the state, 1-800-435-7352 (800-HELP-FLA), or visiting www.FloridaConsumerHelp.com. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by the state. Florida Registration #CH50464

Georgia: A full and fair description of our programs and our financial statement summary is available upon request at our office and phone number indicated above.

Maryland: For the cost of copies and postage, from the Office of the Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401.

Mississippi: The official registration and financial information of The David Ortiz Children’s Fund may be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office by calling 1-888-236-6167. Registration by the Secretary of State does not imply endorsement.

Nevada: Contributions may be tax deductible pursuant to the provisions of sec. 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 U.S.C. ¤170(c).

New Jersey: Information filed with the attorney general concerning this charitable solicitation and the percentage of contributions received by the charity during the last reporting period that were dedicated to the charitable purpose may be obtained from the attorney general of the state of New Jersey by calling (973) 504-6215 and is available on the internet at www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/charfrm.htm. Registration with the attorney general does not imply endorsement.

New York: Upon request, from the Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005, 1-212-416-8686 or www.charitiesnys.com.

North Carolina: Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 1-919-814-5400. The license is not an endorsement by the state.

Pennsylvania: The official registration and financial information of The David Ortiz Children’s Fund may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999.

Virginia: From the State Office of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23218.

Washington: From the Secretary of State at 1-800-332-4483 or http://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/

West Virginia: West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305.

Wisconsin: A financial statement of the charitable organization disclosing assets, liabilities, fund balances, revenue and expenses for the preceding fiscal year will be provided to any person upon request.

REGISTRATION WITH A STATE AGENCY DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION BY THAT STATE.

More information about charity state disclosure requirements and nonprofit fundraising registrations.

In the Dominican Republic, the need for better and more accessible children’s health care is significantly greater than most neighboring developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, congenital health anomalies in the country are twice the average rate of the region, and they are the second most common cause of death behind premature births for those under five years old. Despite recent improvements, the Dominican Republic still has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the region, according to the CIA. Against this challenging backdrop, our program represents a critical source of care and a model for increasing health care access for the country’s most vulnerable population.

To respond to this urgent need, DOCF has partnered with CEDIMAT to make it the only high-quality pediatric cardiac care resource in the country accessible to families who do not have the ability to pay. The hospital’s pediatric cardiovascular unit now has the advanced equipment and highly-trained staff necessary to perform complex surgeries, and they provide vital follow up care that is often not available elsewhere. Through our program, low-income patients can receive:

• Free screenings and diagnoses during annual rural outreach trips
• Common and complex pediatric cardiac surgeries, such as congenital, valve replacement and repair including rheumatic, performed by CEDIMAT’s surgical team
• Highly complex pediatric cardiac surgeries performed with visiting International Mission Teams from across the United States, which also serve to train the CEDIMAT team