Life-Changing Heart Surgeries for Kids in Vietnam

“A Hole in My Heart” by Khoa from Xuan in Vietnam

All I know is that I was born on a day they said was November 11^th of 2017. It was a cold awakening. All warm and snuggy in my mommy’s tummy and then all at once I felt the need to ‘get out now’.   What an awakening … the air was crisp, I heard my mother’s groans and the voices of people I had never heard before. But I was here, here in the big wide world, and I was free at last to spread my arms and kick my legs and be joyful at life. So with that I took a breath….a big breath, my first. But when I sucked in, something did not seem right.   It was “aminomic fluid” I heard them say, whatever that is. Then all of a sudden a cold round thing was on my chest and a voice identified as a doctor was listening and listening.   He talked to my mommy and she cried. What for? I was here, I was trying hard, and I wanted her to know that I was at last free to touch her face and take from her the gift of nourishing milk.   But it was so hard to suck. I could not catch my breath, and my heart would pound so hard. I tried and tried for 3 or 4 months. It was hard work, this sucking thing! Sometimes I would hear my mommy and daddy talking about money and how they might get me something called surgery and perhaps my heart would not pound so hard.   My big brother would kiss my face softly and then run out to play…Would I ever play, my mommy would ask. “How can we get the money for the surgery”? Then one day my mommy got a call. And she said “IT happened”, whatever that meant.

She was so excited that she ran outside and I could her her calling daddy. “Come quick”, she yelled over and over again.   Then daddy arrived and I was startled. What was going on? I started to cry because they were crying. They were jumping up and down.   But their cry was a different cry than before, they were laughing too.   It was something about a group called MEDRIX. The group was coming to town and they had some people who lived far, far away and wanted little me to be able to breathe and not have a pounding heart. They said that these people would sponsor my surgery and other surgeries for kids who had the same problem as I did.

Whohoo!   Now my brother was jumping up and down and grandma was laughing and making whistling sounds between her teeth.   Daddy was calling the neighbor to ask him to watch our pigs and water our rice at the right time. Mom was throwing a blanket into her pouch and wrapping me so tight around her as she climed on the motorbike behind my dad.   Then we were off to a place called the big city, and many people were seeing me. Some people were talking and I could not understand them; neither could my mom or dad but someone else was there and told them what they were saying. Life was a blurrrrr….

When I woke up I could breath. When I woke up, my heart was not beating out of my chest. When I woke up the hole in my heart was not there. I heard the nurses and doctors talking to my mom and dad and telling them that the hole is my heart was fixed. And ‘friends’ from far across the sea had helped get my heart fixed. And then I heard that the people talking had paid for my surgery. They sounded funny. But I was happy. Now, I could learn to run and jump and play with my brother when I get big enough. I could go to school.   Wow! Can you believe it? This is my story. I am Khoa, and this is my picture when I had a hole in my heart. Now I am almost 1!   I am now healthy. I can stand, and I’m learning how to walk. I will jump with my brother soon. Thank you, thank you for helping me and thank you for helping my family.   You can sponsor another kid just like me.   There are 101 of us who have received this wonderful gift of breathing and hearts beating because of you. Thank you, thank you.