Every year, more than 600 patients have heart surgery at Children's National. Our CICU team uses the latest research and innovation to ensure that we provide the best outcomes for all of our patients.
Children’s National Hospital is the region’s leading provider of critical care for seriously ill and injured infants and children. We offer the only pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and specialized Cardiac ICU (CICU) in the greater Washington, D.C. area.
In our state-of-the-art Cardiac ICU, our team of pediatric heart specialists is dedicated to saving and improving the lives of our most vulnerable patients.
We designed our Cardiac ICU around a dual philosophy: a high-tech environment with a family-friendly feel. We believe that both of these aspects of our Cardiac ICU are vital to our patients’ well-being and long-term health.
Features of our critical care program include:
We understand how difficult it can be for families when a child requires care in one of our intensive care units. That’s why we emphasize compassion and comfort during this stressful time – in our facility and our approach to care. We offer:
Our in-house critical care team is a group of dedicated and specially trained experts in all areas of intensive care. We believe in high-quality and compassionate care for our patients and their families. Our team includes:
We also work closely with all specialists and surgeons throughout the hospital involved in your child’s treatment plan. We invite them to participate in our daily bedside rounds.
Cayden was born with a life-threatening complex congenital heart defect. Learn how the hybrid procedure for HLHS helped Cayden.
Ricardo Munoz Division Chief, Cardiac Critical Care MedicineExecutive Director, TelemedicineCo-Director, Children's National Heart Institute
John Berger III Director, Pulmonary Hypertension ProgramDirector, Cardiac ECMO
Michael Tsifansky Medical Director, Advanced Lung Disease and Transplant Program Cardiac Critical Care SpecialistPulmonologist
Alejandro Lopez-Magallon Medical Director, TelemedicineCardiac Critical Care Specialist
Sherrill Caprarola Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
John Diddle Director, Quality Outcomes in Cardiac Critical Care Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Yuliya Domnina Medical Director, Quality and Safety for the ICUs Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Craig Futterman Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Bao Puente Fellowship Program Director, Cardiac Critical Care MedicineCardiac Critical Care Specialist
Gil Wernovsky Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Gregory Yurasek Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Renee Willett Cardiac Critical Care Specialist
Charles Fleming Nurse Navigator, Children's National Heart Institute
Lauren Daniel Nurse Practitioner
Melissa Jones Director, Neurocardiac Critical Care
Christine Riley Advance Practice Provider Team Lead Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care
Jennifer Rowe Nurse Practitioner
Sarah Wilson Nurse Practitioner
Lucy Burrell Nurse Manager, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Justine Fortkiewicz Professional Practice Specialist, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Martha Goldberg Clinical Instructor, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
David Nagle Emergency Medicine Physician
Cara Pleau Clinical Instructor, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Monique Powell Nurse Manager, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Children’s National Hospital has opened a new telehealth command center that uses cutting-edge technology to keep continuous watch over the most fragile children with critical heart disease.