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The DeLuca Award

We created this award along side The American Heart Association to recognize an individual or group of people that are dedicated to making advances in the area of pediatric heart disease.

On February 7, 2015, we presented the first DeLuca Award to Dr. Michael “Dooley” Womack at The American Heart Association Go Red VIP Award Night.

Dr. Womack is a pediatric cardiologist practicing in Boise, Idaho. He is deeply and personally involved in the lives and care of his patients. He continually goes above and beyond to ensure that his patients and their families are being given the best care possible. There could be no one better to receive the first DeLuca Award.

Thank you, Dr. Womack, for all that you do.

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In 2016, Dr. Womack presented it to the amazing Julie DuBois.

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One parent said Julie was her sanity. She does such a great job of keeping parents informed so much so she will call or text from the cath lab. The little patients love her just as much! Julie’s positive attitude and passion for what she does is evident to all those who encounter her.

 

 

2017 DeLuca Award Winner – Dr. Dunbar Ivy

 

Dr. Ivy is the Chief and Selby’s Chair of Pediatric Cardiologist a the Children’s Hospital Colorado.

He is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

For the JDF he was our first contact with our amazing research team!

Thank you Dr. Ivy!

 

 

 

 

2019 DeLuca Award Winner  – Echocardiogram Technicians at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital

They are a vital part of diagnosing and treating anyone with congenital heart disease, and are even used to make diagnoses before babies are born, so families and medical teams can prepare.  It is not an easy task. Unlike virtually all other imaging techniques, echoes are extremely operator dependent. This means that the techs who perform the studies have to get good images even in tense, urgent situations, sometimes in cramped space, at any hour of the day or night.  They have to follow a detailed and demanding series of steps in the studies, but they also have to make decisions on the fly about exactly what is needed in the study. They therefore also have to know intimately the anatomy and physiology of all these defects.

 
 
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“I wanted to thank you again for your gift. The money has already gone to good use. There was a patient from Idaho with PH that needed oxygen on the airplane and we could not get it funded, so we used Jayden’s fund to pay for it so the family could go home sooner. We have recently sent in 4 different pulmonary hypertension papers to medical journals on different aspects of PH in children.”

- Dr Dunbar Ivy,  The Children's Hospital - Denver, Colorado

“Fifty years ago we would have known her heart was the problem but have not been able to repair it. Fifteen years ago the heart/lung bypass machine was not advanced enough and would have destroyed her kidneys during her surgery. It is only today, with all our medical advancements, that my baby could be ok. The words thankful do not even begin to describe how we feel.”

- Gracen’s Mom