Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr. is among the world’s leading pediatric cardiovascular surgeons. His leadership in the development of internationally recognized research, training and clinical programs has impacted more than 16,000 children and adults in need of congenital cardiac repairs and related surgeries.

He has pioneered the surgical care of these patients with particular emphasis on complex neonatal repairs, cardiac surgery, valve repair, and treatments for adults with congenital heart disease. Also, he has been instrumental in the training of the new generation of surgeons.

Dr. Fraser graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He completed his surgical residency at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also served a pediatric heart surgery fellowship at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, a heart surgery fellowship at Johns Hopkins, and a cardiovascular surgery fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) under Texas Heart Institute founder and world-renowned surgeon, Dr. Denton A. Cooley.

Dr. Fraser was recruited to Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in 1995 to establish a new congenital heart surgery unit. In 2002, his team developed the first pediatric lung transplant program in the Southwest, which grew to be the nation’s largest. Three years later, he and his team performed the first successful pediatric heart/lung transplant in the Southwest.

Dr. Fraser served as the Chief of the Division of Congenital Heart Surgery at Baylor, Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Heart Center and Surgeon-in-Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital where he and his team worked to refine the surgical treatment of small babies, children and adults with congenital cardiac disease. Under his leadership Texas Children’s congenital heart surgery program ranked No. 1 nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

As a member of the THI Professional Staff, Dr. Fraser served as the director of the Adult Congenital Heart Surgery Program prior to his appointment as a member of the THI Board of Trustees.

In 2018 Dr. Fraser was named chief of pediatric and congenital cardiothoracic surgery at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and was appointed to the faculty of Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin where he is a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Perioperative Care and Pediatrics.

Dr. Fraser maintains an active research program with specific interests in congenital heart surgical outcomes and quality, transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, brain protection, and bioengineering.  He implanted the world’s first DeBakey Child Cardiac assist device in March of 2004.  Dr. Fraser served as the National Principal Investigator of a pivotal, first ever, multi-center trial to assess the safety and benefit of the Berlin Heart Pediatric EXCOR ventricular assist device. The device was subsequently approved in December 2011 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical use, making it the first device to be approved specifically for small babies. In 2011, Dr. Fraser’s heart failure team implanted the first total artificial heart at a children’s hospital.