Charles D Fraser, Jr. is the medical director and surgeon of the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease a
Dell Children's Medical Center
Formerly, Fraser was chief of congenital heart surgery and cardiac surgeon-in-charge at

Texas Children's Hospital Texas Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding 973-bed, acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. It is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located wit ...

, the nation's largest pediatric hospital, served as chief of the Congenital Heart Surgery Division at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

, and director of the Adult Congenital Heart Surgery Program at the

Texas Heart Institute The Texas Heart Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization that is improving cardiovascular health through trailblazing research, thought leadership, education, and patient care to forge a better future for those with cardiovascular diseas ...

Career

Dr. Fraser is a native Texan. He was born in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

and raised in

Midland, Texas Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County. At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...

. Following his graduation from Midland High School, Fraser attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

where he was a member of the varsity tennis team - Southwest Conference Champions in 1977. He received his bachelor's degree

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in mathematics from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 1980.Texas Children's Heart Center: Charles D. Fraser Jr., M.D.
After completing his medical degree at

University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febr ...

, Fraser studied as a resident at

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

, where he specialized in general, cardiothoracic and thoracic transplant surgery. Fraser has completed three fellowships: pediatric cardiac surgery at the

Royal Children's Hospital The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) is a major children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia. As a major specialist paediatric hospital in Victoria, the Royal Children's Hospital provides a full range of clinical services, tertiary care, as well ...

, cardiac transplant research at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and cardiovascular surgery at the Texas Heart Institute. In 1995, Fraser was recruited by Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine to establish their then-new congenital heart surgery unit. In 2011, he was appointed surgeon-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital. In 2018, Fraser joined UT Health Austin, as a tenured Professor of Surgery, Perioperative Care and Pediatrics in the University of Texas,

Dell Medical School The Dell Medical School is the graduate medical school of The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. The school opened to the inaugural class of 50 students in the summer of 2016 as the newest of 18 colleges and schools on the UT Austin ...

in Austin, Texas where he serves as Director of the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Fraser was recruited to the University of Texas to develop an integrated center focused on pediatric and congenital cardiac care. The center’s mission is to provide holistic, family centered care in a value-based, outcomes driven program.

Accomplishments

Dr. Fraser’s clinical career has been dedicated to the surgical treatment of congenital heart disease and has included the development of leading pediatric heart and lung transplant and mechanical circulatory support programs. Dr. Fraser’s research interests have included congenital heart surgery outcomes, cardiopulmonary transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, neurologic protection, and bioengineering. In 2002, Fraser's team developed the first pediatric lung transplant program in the Southwest United States, which grew to become the largest in the nation. In March 2004, Fraser implanted the world's first pediatric

ventricular assist device A ventricular assist device (VAD) is an electromechanical device for assisting cardiac circulation, which is used either to partially or to completely replace the function of a failing heart. The function of a VAD differs from that of an artifici ...

. In 2005, he performed the first successful pediatric heart/lung transplant in the Southwest. Fraser has published over 300 journal articles, chapters, and textbooks in medical literature, and has performed over 18,000 congenital cardiac repair surgeries in children. Fraser served as the national principal investigator of a pediatric ventricular assist device trial to assess the safety and benefit of the Berlin Heart Pediatric EXCOR ventricular assist device. This device was subsequently approved in December 2011 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical use – the first device to be approved specifically for small babies. In 2011, Fraser's heart failure team implanted the first total artificial heart at a children's hospital.

Awards

*1999 University of Texas Outstanding Young Alumnus Award *2002

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

Medical Honoree *2004 Baylor College of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Distinguished Service Award *2013 University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award *2017 the Texas Children's Heart Center, which Fraser co-directed, achieved the #1 ranking for pediatric heart programs as noted by U.S. News & World Report.

Appearances in popular media

Fraser was featured in the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

Series '' Surgery Saved My Life'', where in the episode "Train Wreck Heart", he performed a

transposition of the great arteries Transposition of the great vessels (TGV) is a group of congenital heart defects involving an abnormal spatial arrangement of any of the great vessels: superior and/or inferior venae cavae, pulmonary artery, pulmonary veins, and aorta. Congenita ...

correction procedure on a five-day-old newborn.Discovery Channel: Surgery Saved My Life Episode Guide
Charles Fraser, Jr., MD, leads Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at Dell Children's Medical Center

References

External links

Charles, Fraser, Jr., MD - UT Health Austin Directory

Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease - UT Health Austin

Charles Fraser, Jr., MD, Dell Medical School Directory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Charles Living people American cardiac surgeons People from Midland, Texas Johns Hopkins University fellows Year of birth missing (living people)