Children’s HeartLink

Nov 16th, 2009 1:00 PM UTC
By Kara Arsenault

Check out this post from Children’s HeartLink, an organization now in its 40th year that sends volunteer medical teams and individual consultants to train, teach and perform life-saving heart procedures for children. They partner with hospitals in South Africa, Kenya, India, China, Ukraine, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brazil.

Greetings from Children’s HeartLink, an international medical NGO working to build sustainable programs to prevent, treat and cure heart disease among needy children in underserved regions of the world. We have a team in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam right now, working alongside a pediatric cardiac team from Singapore and a local team at Nhi Dong 1 (Children’s Hospital 1) to provide training, mentoring and patient treatment.

I wanted to share one small story about our work by introducing you to Le, one of several children receiving lifesaving treatment this week. Le, an only child, had a heart operation Monday, November 9 (his first birthday). When Le was only two weeks old, he developed pneumonia, and his parents took him to the provincial hospital near their home in Angiang Province. A doctor there discovered Le had a congenital heart defect—a ventricular septal defect, or “hole in the heart.” Since then, his family has been making the long trip to Ho Chi Minh City once every month so cardiologists can track his condition. While Le’s treatment expense is covered by the government, his family has had to borrow money to pay for the trips to Ho Chi Minh City, which is five hours by bus from their home. The family’s income is very limited, so this has been a struggle for them.

Now that Le has had his operation, his parents are hopeful he will recover rapidly and that their financial burdens will be lighter. Treating Le’s heart defect has given the family great hope of a better life for both their son and themselves.

Having worked as a volunteer with Children’s HeartLink for years now, I’ve seen this hope firsthand. Nothing brings more joy than a child’s beating heart, and this week in Vietnam is no exception. With 40 years of experience and partners in nine countries, Children’s HeartLink has extended access to high-quality pediatric cardiac care in places where it’s needed most.

-Dr. Joseph A. Dearani, Medical Director, Children’s HeartLink, Mayo Clinic, Division of Cardiac Surgery

TAGS: ONE Partners, Vietnam