What's CDH?

Resources & Information about Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is a congenital anomaly that occurs when a baby’s diaphragm fails to form fully, allowing abdominal organs to enter the chest cavity and prevent lung growth.

Approximately 1 in every 3000 babies is born with CDH, but these range from nearly undetectable to catastrophic. About 50% survive. The cause is still unknown, and research is woefully underfunded, but slowly gaining momentum finally.

Ronen Eliezer (z"l) was born in 2019 with a right-sided CDH, which we did not know about before he was born. Early scans showed that he had little to no diaphragmatic tissue on the right, which meant that parts of his intestines, his stomach, and his liver were sitting on top of his right lung, and pushing on his heart. His 39-day-life in the NICU at Children’s National Hospital was the most intense journey of my life thus far, and his loss still reverberates in epic ways.

You can learn more about CDH through the amazing resources at CDH International, https://cdhi.org/ .
Consider sponsoring my sister Sara Eisen in her running at the Ladybug Run for CDH Awareness by donating at this link.
You can read more about our journey and the learning I've done in Ronen's memory at https://ronenstorah.net/ . If you're local to Chevy Chase/DC, you can visit Ronen's garden and his tree outside Ohr Kodesh Congregation.

Thanks for being here. May Ronen's memory be a blessing.