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Help children with congenital heart defects in Viet Nam

CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT (CHD) CLAIMS THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN

Congenital heart defect (CHD) affects children throughout the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands are born with this condition the causes of which are still unclear. CHD usually manifests in a child at a very early age. The child suddenly gets tired, turns blue, faints and cannot play or live a normal life. 

There is no prevention for CHD yet, but fortunately, with the advancement of medicine today CHD can be controlled through surgery. In Canada and other developed nations, a child diagnosed with CHD would be referred to a surgeon for an operation, free of charge, and the child would be healed and get back to normal life afterwards.

This is not the case in many parts of the world. In Viet Nam, about 4,000 children are born with CHD every year, but unfortunately, surgery is not free of charge. Despite available dedicated surgeons, the patient must still pay for the operation ranging from VND 45 million to 80 million (CAD$3,000 to $5,000). Only 1 in 10 patients can afford this expensive cost. Most poor families cannot and often leave their children undiagnosed and untreated because the fear and pain is too drastic to bear once they find out that the child has CHD and that surgery is beyond their means. Many of these children eventually die, and CHD claims thousands of lives every year.

THE GOOD HEART INITITIATIVE

THIEN TAM (or THE GOOD HEART) intiative was created in 2005 by the Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients (called SAPP) in Ho Chi Minh City to fundraise to help poor children born with CHD pay towards the cost of surgery. This initiative is led by Dr. Huynh Tan Mam, a long time very good friend of mine.

THIEN TAM was able to negociate with the Vietnamese government a matching grant as follows: for each surgery case, if Thien Tam is able to raise 30% of the funds towards the cost, government and corporate grants will match the remaining 70%. For example, for a surgery case of $3,000, Thien Tam would have to raise $900 from community donors, and the remaining $2100 would be paid by government and corporate grants.

THE PHENOMENAL SUCCESS

20,000 such children need surgery. But, in the span of 10 years previous to 2005, only 600 children had been operated for CHD. In 2006 together with SAPP, Thien Tam had successfully raised funds for more than 200 operations; in 2007 another 549, and in this year another 250 so far, 201 left to reach the target of 1000 for 2007-2008.

The success of Thien Tam is phenomenal. It has inspired hospitals throughout the country to come together to take action to resolve the backlog of those 20,000 children waiting for surgery. In Ho Chi Minh City, 7 hospitals are engaged each to provide up to 5 surgeries a day. The hospitals of Hue and Danang aim for 10 a day. The Heart Institute of Hanoi is committed to 600 in year 2008. It would mean that 50 children can be operated a day, and within two years hospitals would be able to successfully clear this backlog. According to the statistics of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy of Viet Nam, every year 4,000 newborns are affected with CHD, half of them will need immediate surgery. The Vietnamese government is now committed to pay the full cost of surgery for children under the age 5.

CALL FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT

THIEN TAM is urgently calling on financial support to get the operations carried out as promptly as possible. Doctors and surgeons are anxiously waiting for generous donations towards the cost of surgery so that those children can be timely saved. It would be immeasurable joy for everyone to see these children saved and recovering in good health.

I am so grateful to return to Viet Nam and see my friends rebuilding Viet Nam within limited means, Dr. Huynh being one of them. Dr. Huynh has been involved for many years with the Red Cross and many medical bodies to advance health care in Viet Nam. In his retirement he has tirelessly devoted to this noble cause in helping heal the vulnerable poor children. His integrity and dedication to this cause is unquestionable.

I invite you to join us learn about the pains of those children, the fears and despair of their families, and as much as your circumstances allow, to extend hope and joy to them.

We look forward to your generosity.