Every day, the heart specialists at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Heart Center are bringing hope to the families of infants born with heart issues such as single ventricle defects. Some infants may require several complex surgeries to correct these heart defects, such as the Norwood, the Glenn, and the Fontan procedures. If one ventricle is too weak to circulate blood throughout the body or to the lungs, these procedures help supply the oxygen these infants need to survive.

Safeguarding Infants’ Health at Home

There is usually a period of a few months between the Norwood and the Glenn procedures, and Mount Sinai provides a home monitoring program to safeguard these infants’ well-being between these two heart repair procedures. The Infant Single Ventricle Monitoring Program (ISVMP) provides specialized care for high-risk infants while they convalesce at home. The goal of the program is to prevent life-threatening emergencies and promote the infant’s growth during this time. Studies show that infants benefit from improved outcomes from both cardiac and developmental objectives.

Families with a child in the Home Monitoring Program benefit from:

• Comprehensive management and monitoring during the “interstage” period between the first and second operations.
• Education to support all individuals involved in the care of infants with single ventricle heart defects including:
  • • Infant CPR
    • Use of home monitoring equipment, such as the pulse oximeter and scale
    • Recognition and responses to “red flags”
    • Nutrition and feeding
• Close communication with our Home Monitoring Program Coordinators. We contact parents once a week and often more to discuss oxygen saturation, heart rate, weight gain, and feeding. Our coordinators are also readily available by phone and text.
• Help in reducing parental stress and anxiety, thanks to structured education and support from our Pediatric Cardiac Social Workers.

Our Expertise in Single Ventricle Heart Procedures

The Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Heart Center and our Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery Team has extensive experience caring for children with single ventricle heart defects, which is why we recognize the importance of a dedicated program that focuses on the care of infants between the first and second operations. The Infant Single Ventricle Monitoring Program provides care for these children beginning after the newborn operation until they undergo the Glenn operation, whether they're being cared for in the hospital or at home.

Our team also participates in the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC), a project dedicated to improving survival and quality of life of infants with single ventricle heart defects during the interstage period. This network consists of more than 60 pediatric cardiology care centers across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This collaborative effort unites families, clinicians, researchers, and patients to dramatically improve the outcomes for children with cardiovascular disease.

Meet Our Team

Our Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Physician Assistants (PAs) are highly trained in the special care needs of congenital cardiac patients. They play an integral role in the care of our patients leading up to, during, and after surgery. Our surgical PAs can be found caring for patients in the operating room, ICUs and cardiology clinic.

Rachel A. Moreno, MS, PA-C has been a PA since 2010. She has been a part of Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery team since 2017. Prior to that, she worked in Pediatric Interventional Cardiology at Mount Sinai. Rachel has been a coordinator in the Children’s Heart Center’s Interstage Monitoring Program since its inception.

Tess M. Becker, MS, PA-C joined Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery team in 2019. Prior to that she worked at New York Presbyterian-Columbia in the Department of Interventional Cardiology for 4 years. Tess also is one of the coordinators for the Children’s Heart Center’s Interstage Monitoring Program.

Caroline Paszkowski, PA-C joined Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery team in 2020. She has been working as a part of the team, in the operating room, clinic, ICUs and as a home monitoring program coordinator since that time.

Jenny Shi, MS, PA-C is the newest surgical PA to join Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery team. She has been working as a part of the team since 2023.