Angela Sharkey, MD
Cardiologist
St. Louis Children’s Hospital
- Director of fetal echocardiography services, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine.
- Runs the Fetal Heart Center and the Marfan syndrome clinics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
- Co-founder of “Camp Rhythm,” summer camp for children with heart disease or heart surgery.
- Director of the Office of Faculty Development, Washington University School of Medicine, where she advises medical students interested in pediatrics, mentors and advocates for female students and colleagues, and overseas pediatric residency rotations
Notable Quotes
Dr. Sharkey on the role of the Fetal Heart Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital:
“The benefit of the prenatal diagnosis of heart disease is that on the outside for all intents and purposes the majority of these children will look perfectly normal but it’s on the inside where the problem is so if we can diagnose that problem before the baby’s born the obstetricians and the newborn medicine doctors can be better equipped to care for that child immediately in the delivery room.”
Dr. Sharkey on living with congenital heart disease:
“It’s important for them to realize that their child will be able to do most of the things that a normal child can do that they may not have the endurance from an athletic standpoint that the normal child with two pumping chambers might have if they’re only going to have a heart with one pumping chamber but that that doesn’t mean they won’t ride a bike or take ballet classes or try and play football”
Dr. Sharkey on “Camp Rhythm,” a summer camp she helped create for children with heart disease:
“The children find great support from each other. They compare their surgery experiences - like a badge of courage. That probably has been the greatest asset to our family of children with congenital heart disease than any of us would have imagined. Yet they swim in the swimming pool, they run on the tennis courts, they climb the rock wall, they learn how to fish. They do everything that a kid would do as part of the camp experience. And I think that has really helped our families feel that at some point as their children grow they’re going to be able to let them go and to be adults and to be independent and live on their own”