By Robert Detrano | Founder and Executive Director
This fall, two children came to the China California Heart Watch clinics in Yunnan with complex, expensive, and hard-to-repair heart disease. The Chinese Red Cross Organization and other foundations turned down surgical support for these children due to high cost and risk. Their stories are shared below. Simply put, we want to give these children the gift of life this holiday season. To do so, we need an additional $10,200 this holiday season to cover the costs. Through our campaign on Global Giving, we are hoping to raise the funds to cover their surgeries by December 31st. This would allow the children to undergo surgery the first or second week of 2016.
The first child that came to us was Little Peng, who is 7 years old. He lives in Teng Chong County in Bao Shan Prefecture, Yunnan. His father and mother are both poor farmers. Their total yearly income is 10,000 RMB (~$1,600 USD). Little Peng was born without one of his four heart valves. This is a very severe kind of heart disease that should be corrected in infancy. Little Peng is lucky because the nature of his heart disease is such that, even at this relatively late age, it can be cured with surgery. The operation for this kind of heart disease costs about 50,000 RMB (~$8,000 USD) or about five years worth of income for this family. This surgery is only partially covered by rural health insurance (10%) and not at all by Chinese charitable foundations. We need $7,000 to fund Little Peng's surgery.
The second child that came to us is Little Yang, who is 12 years old. She also lives in Teng Chong County. Little Yang was born with a big hole in the middle of her heart. This is a very severe kind of heart disease but it is curable with a single operation. The total cost of her operation will be $3,200. Her parents are also farmers and are unable to afford the operation. She is relying on us to gather the funds to provide her with a cure.
We thank you for your continued support of our organization and the children of Yunnan, and we wish you the very best this holiday season. Please consider another gift today, and please tell your colleauges, friends and family about our mission to cure heart disease in Yunnan, China.
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