Curing kids with heart disease in southwest China

Dear China Cal donors,

We would like to thank you for your continued support of our efforts to help children suffering from congenital heart disease in rural Yunnan Province, China. Below are some updates and a summary of our recent activities. Please feel free to share this mailing--as well as our project homepage on GlobalGiving--with your colleagues, friends and family.

China Cal Initiates a Landmark Relationship with the Yunnan Province Maternal & Child Health Care Department. On May 26, senior China Cal representatives met with the leaders of the Yunnan Province Maternal and Child Health Care (MCHC) Department. China Cal successfully persuaded the MCHC to add a cardiac examination to a new province-wide protocol that will require four medical check-ups by MCHC-appointed physicians for all infants born in Yunnan Province. The China Cal Pediatric Heart Training Program (described in this newsletter) will take on the responsibility of training all town- and county-level MCHC physicians on the proper cardiac examination technique of infants. To date, the addition of pediatric heart screening to the MCHC’s protocol represents our biggest advocacy achievement on behalf of the rural poor in Yunnan.

China Cal to Launch Pediatric Heart Training Program for Rural Doctors. Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common congenital anomalies. During five years of work in rural Yunnan, China Cal has found that rural medical personnel are not sufficiently trained or motivated to detect CHDs in newborns. The result is that children with heart defects go undetected and exhibit their first symptoms between five and 15 years of age, when it is too late for corrective surgery. Often, these children die in adolescence or young adulthood. Mandatory newborn screening can prevent this tragic scenario. Screening would require adequate examination with a standard stethoscope and pulse oximetry at birth followed by a thorough stethoscopic examination at three to six months of age. China Cal, together with Kunming Medical University (KMU) and the Yunnan Province Department of Health, is aiming to create a school—the Yunnan Pediatric Heart Program and Training Center—to train all rural doctors responsible for the care of newborns and infants to do proper examinations.

China Cal Signs Contract with Kunming Medical University. The China California Heart Watch and the Yunnan Province Department of Health’s primary facility, Kunming Medical University’s First Affiliate Hospital, have completed a contract specifying a long-term relationship designed to enhance diagnosis and treatment efforts for children with heart disease. Specifically, KMU will provide surgical and interventional care at reduced cost for patients referred by the China California Heart Watch and select members of its medical and nursing staff to assist the China California Heart Watch in our clinical and training programs. In return, the China California Heart Watch will collaborate with KMU in the recruitment of foreign physicians and allied health volunteers to aid in training local doctors in the latest techniques in screening and diagnosis for children suffering from heart disease.

New China Cal Clinic to Open in Winter 2014. Cang Hai Yi Shuin the city of Dali, Yunnan Province, will be the site of the new China California Heart Watch clinic. Construction of the clinic space will be completed in September. The clinic space will then need to be furnished with diagnostic and medical equipment, examination tables, storage for patient files and the like. Funds to complete the furnishings are being requested with the aim of opening the clinic to see patients in November 2014. In May, China California Heart Watch Board Member and Administrative Manager Shan Shan Chen inspected the clinic construction site and reported that all is proceeding according to schedule.

China Cal Completing Agreement with the Ping & Amy Chao Family Foundation. The China California Heart Watch and the Ping & Amy Chao Family Foundation of Silicon Valley, CA, will collaborate in a pilot project to support surgical care for Yunnan children with congenital heart disease. All children receiving support from this collaboration will undergo corrective surgery at the KMU First Affiliate Hospital in Kunming, Yunnan Province. This pilot project will enhance additional support that the China California Heart Watch and one of its partner organizations, the Children’s Heart Link of Minneapolis, MN, are providing to KMU to improve the quality of its care for children in Yunnan Province.

China Cal Helped 185 Children in 2013. In 2013, the China California Heart Watch assisted a total of 185 impoverished children with free diagnostic, referral and financial support in order to cure their congenital heart defects. Together, our donors, our partner organizations, and our staff and volunteers have made it possible for all of these children to be treated at little or no cost to their families. Together, we have given them a chance to spend their lives building a better China and a better world.

Thank you again for your continued support. We hope that you will continue to be an advocate for the children that we serve by following our progress and spreading the word to your co-workers, friends, and family.