The Hospital for Sick Children is the only centre in Ontario that is able to provide lifesaving cardiac care for newborns with the most severe heart defects. In fact, SickKids performs more than 85 per cent of paediatric cardiovascular surgery in Ontario.

Here is a question for our specialists from Drew about heart defects:

“Why are babies born with defective hearts?” ~ Drew – age 9, Palmerston, ON.

Click here to see the answer from Dr. Seema Mital, a staff cardiologist in Cardiology and an associate scientist in the Genetics & Genome Biology program.

The scientists at SickKids are experts in most areas of health and life science. They spend their days asking tough questions and searching out the answers. Now it is your turn to ask them the tough questions.

Have you ever had a burning question about your body or about your health and didn’t know how to find the answer? This might just be the opportunity to get to the bottom of it!

You have the chance to submit your question and it will be answered by a scientist who specializes in that area. The best questions and answers will be featured on the Research Institute website: http://www.sickkids.ca/research.

Check the website often to see if your question gets posted. You can learn about what others want to know and if you read enough answers, you may even become a health expert yourself!