Recent events concerning the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program here at Stony Brook University Medical Center have been disconcerting.   However, we would like to assure all of the patients, families and physicians we serve that we are committed to providing the utmost quality in our care.

Events as reported in the newspaper while disturbing do not present all of the facts as they relate to those individual cases.   The linkage of these cases to the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program is quite limited as only 1 of the children had a lesion remotely “cardiac” in nature.   This infant, a 23 week premature child, had a patent ductus arteriosus, and it was a joint decision of the physicians and parents to not surgically close the lesion due to other, more severe, ongoing medical conditions.   It was these other problems that ultimately caused the child to expire.   Regrettably, Newsday chose to not report these facts to their readers.   The other 2 cases were operating room events only 1 of which, at this time, can correctly be termed an “error”.   Unfortunately, all 3 cases have been unfairly linked to the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program and this linkage has resulted in the temporary suspension of the program.   The Pediatric Cardiology service, the Department of Pediatrics, The School of Medicine and the Stony Brook University Medical Center are all committed to the reinstitution of the program and plans are underway to make any required changes in order for this to happen.    We ask you to consider your past experiences with us and the high quality care historically delivered by our faculty and staff before jumping to judgment.

Despite the unfortunate events of the past month, we continue to strive for excellence in all of our programmatic missions, Teaching, Research and Clinical Care, and hope that you agree that we provide good quality care to the children in our surrounding communities.   We thank you for your continued support and understanding.

Sincerely,

Latha Chandran, Interim Chairman
Pediatrics for the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics and staff of the pediatric service at Stony Brook University Medical Center