Update from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

LeNovember 12, 2009

Let us introduce you to Le Nguyen, one of several children receiving lifesaving treatment this week during a Children’s HeartLink training, mentoring and treatment mission to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. From November 9-13, Children’s HeartLink is sponsoring a pediatric cardiac team from Singapore to work with the local team at Nhi Dong 1, or Children’s Hospital 1. The Singapore team, led by cardiac surgeon Dr. Sriram Shankar, includes several doctors, surgical technicians and nurses representing a number of Singaporean medical institutions. Also joining the team for the week is Dr. Casey Culbertson, volunteer intensivist from Oakland, California. Dr. Culbertson has a longstanding relationship with the pediatric cardiac team at Nhi Dong 1.

Le Nguyen is a spirited little boy who received the gift of a lifesaving heart operation on his first birthday, Monday, November 9.  He is the only child of his mother Phan thi Ngoc Han and father Le Nguyen P. Dien, both in their mid-20s. 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, in southern Vietnam near the border with Cambodia. A doctor there discovered that Le had a congenital heart defect--a ventricular septal defect, or "hole in the heart."  Since then, the family has been making the long trip to Ho Chi Minh City once a month so cardiologists here can track Le’s condition. Le's family has had to borrow money to pay for the trips to Ho Chi Minh City-–five hours by bus from their home. The family’s income is very limited--the dad works in a paper factory, and the mom does housework-–so this has been a great hardship for them. (Per capita income in Vietnam in 2008 was just over $1,000 per year.)

Now that Le has had his operation, his parents are hopeful that he will live a healthier life and that their financial burdens will be alleviated. 

We are deeply grateful for your support of Children’s HeartLink and for making stories like Le Nguyen’s possible.

Warmest regards,

Bistra and Estelle