Coming Back to Vietnam

For the past three years, since my husband passed away from heart disease at the age of 40, I had been looking for a way to honor his memory. Little did I know that I would find that opportunity in Vietnam, thousands of kilometers away from my home in Australia.

Sue and her sister Jen visit some of the children who will receive lifesaving heart surgery thanks to Helping Hand Helping Hearts and Heartbeat Vietnam. These surgeries took place at Trieu An Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

I learned about the VinaCapital Foundation and their Heartbeat Vietnam program earlier this year during an amazingly rewarding three months spent in HCMC volunteering as a psychologist. It was then that my sister Jen and I knew that we could make a real difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. In Australia our children have free access to the best medical care, state-of-the-art hospitals and medical equipment, and the most experienced surgeons. We learned that the children of Vietnam, through no fault of their own nor their families but due simply to a lifetime of poverty, were unable to access the life saving treatment that they so desperately needed.

And so the journey of Helping Hand Helping Hearts began. Jen and I established a charitable trust to raise funds in Australia to support health and education initiatives for children affected by poverty and life-threatening illnesses. Many asked us why Vietnam, and the answer was simple: nowhere in the world had I seen so much tragedy and poverty and hardship faced with such dignity, humility, warmth, friendship, and an ever-present smile as I saw during my months working with the Vietnamese people.

Sue holds one of the youngest heart patients, an 8-month-old boy named Pham Hoang Phuc. Phuc's condition was so complex that Heartbeat Vietnam brought over Dr. Erle Austin, an American heart surgeon, to operate on him.

It was with great joy that we became associated with the team at the VinaCapital Foundation and began raising money back home in Australia to help fund life saving heart surgeries for some very beautiful children. And so with the profiles we had been sent of the children whose lives we were about to help save, we boarded the plane back to Vietnam knowing that we were about to experience something truly special.

A mesmerizing trip to Kien Giang

Accompanying the VinaCapital Foundation crew to Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, I had more than one “first time”: First time to visit Rach Gia, first time to join VCF on an outreach clinic, first time to see Rach Gia airport, first time to work with the Tam Duc Heart Hospital crew. But if I were to describe what the trip was like, it was a ride touched with sadness, happiness, and fun altogether.

Departing from Ho Chi Minh City at 6:20 a.m., we arrived at Rach Gia at 7 a.m. We would stay there for two days to hold a medical outreach clinic, where volunteer doctors examine hundreds of poor children to see if they have congenital heart problems. The volunteer doctors and nurses all came from Tam Duc Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. The members from VCF were Michelle, Susan, Mimi, Tuan, Thu, and Hong. On the way to a restaurant where we had breakfast, we passed beautiful, peaceful houses. It was surprising to see how developed Rach Gia was. However, I realized the appearance didn’t speak honestly as we began to welcome heart patients to our free check-up at the Traditional Medicine Hospital.

No matter how one looked at it, like many rural regions in Vietnam, the place was over-crowded with people who are too poor to afford good healthcare. Susan pointed out and showed me kids with clear congenital heart defect symptoms: Blue lips, blue fingers or toes. When the heart is not working properly, it cannot pump blood to these areas, that’s why their skin appears to be paler, bluer than us healthy ones. I felt quite pity for Michelle for having a stomach problem. It took all her energy during the day. Despite that, as long as she was in front of a child, she showed them the most shining, friendly smile, said hello and took their pictures. I was really touched that every person in the crew loved children very much and they were doing their best to help.

It was very sad to see many people are still living in sub-standard conditions. Mothers and fathers from hundreds kilometers away who live in islands, forest, etc. came to have their children examined. Many babies were so ill that they stayed still in Mom’s arms, not being able to move or run or play. There was one baby who had all kinds of heart defect. It was the only case the doctor said they could do nothing. Eventually we recorded his parents’ contact information to see if there is hope to send him overseas for treatment. His father, a teacher, and mom, a housewife, had a combined monthly income of 300,000 VND which is less than $20. There were Mrs. Linh and her daughter Lan Anh, a very intelligent and lovely girl. Her father died just a year ago. She was their only child. Their family struggled to earn money by selling ice cream and lived a few hours away by motor bike. Mrs. Linh had only Lan Anh left. When she knew her daughter had heart defect, she was in despair. As she told us her story, she burst into tears. Susan looked like she was about to cry. For me, I didn’t know what to say.

Coming to see this, anyone would feel so lucky. The inequality in healthcare service between city and rural (Ho Chi Minh City – Kien Giang and Rach Gia – its suburbs) exists. Many people do not have enough knowledge or money to protect their health. This is the reality lying behind the beautiful city.

I think my reward from this trip was to be able to meet so many people: From Tam Duc, from Kien Giang, from SAPP (Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients) and from VCF. Different people, different occupations are coming together to make Vietnam a better place for children. I am glad I was a part of this. There is only one left question to ask: “How about you?”

Families from all over Kien Giang Province and the surrounding areas wait in the registration line so their children can be examined for possible congenital heart defects at the medical outreach clinic sponsored by the VinaCapital Foundation.

A young patient receives a diagnostic ultrasound test to determine if he needs heart surgery.

I really love you Mom!

Poor children and their parents wait to receive an ultrasound and cardiograph of the child's heart at a medical outreach clinic in Kien Giang Province, sponsored by the VinaCapital Foundation.

Mrs. Linh and her daughter, Lan Anh, waiting to be examined by the volunteer cardiologists.

Child with breathing difficulties received diagnostic ultrasound testing for her heart.

Child whose case is so severe that doctors in Vietnam cannot operate on his heart, so they sent him home without treatment. Can you help us to help him? Can you see how blue he is due to his heart condition?

Look at how blue his hands are. He desperately needs our help!

Tuyen graduated from RMIT Vietnam University in 2009. She currently works for APCO Worldwide in HCMC, an investment consulting and public affairs agency, and volunteers with VCF in her spare time.

A donation of $1,000 will be matched by VinaCapital and fund one medical outreach clinic and provide free medical care to 400-500 children. A donation of $12,500 will fund an entire year of medical outreach clinics, providing free medical care to thousands of poor children across Vietnam.

Learn more about our Medical Outreach Clinics

Entry 3 by Robin

My life is always surrounded by people with heart problems, but in 2007 my work and my personal life collided and heart problems surrounded me. My husband, my granddaughter and a very special young lady in Khanh Hoa all suffered.

First, our most memorable case ever. Hung Thao was 15 years old, in intensive care at Khanh Hoa Provincial in horrible shape. No one had seen her case before. She was really, really serious. She had a spirit and a sense of confidence that endeared her to everyone who had the good fortune to meet her. A child of a large, extremely poor family, she had never been diagnosed. She had spent the last two years sitting up in a hammock propped up by pillows, because when she lay flat her lungs would fill with fluid. Only at death’s door did she finally visito a hospital.

There was a lot of discussion and angst about whether she could make it through the crisis, and then, could she make it on the trip to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The surgeons in HCMC were concerned too….it would be the most difficult surgery they had ever done. But Thao’s spirit gave everyone the energy to work together to try and save this child.

She made it through the crisis. A team was put together to accompany her to HCMC and get her through the trip. She made it through the trip and the subsequent ICU visit. The surgery was the longest and the most difficult ever for the best surgical team in Vietnam. She made it through the surgery. She survived, with all of us praying and caring for her through the horrible ordeal.

The day she went home was one of the happiest days of our lives at VCF. Amazing! She had some long term damage to other organs caused by the heart disease and she would always be on medication, but she had a chance at a life now.

Months after going home, Thao became ill with an infection. Her mother thought, “We have been given so much charity, we can not ask for more,” and took her to see a Chinese doctor. He gave her herbs that shut down her kidneys. She became dangerously ill and was put back in intensive care.

We had an Outreach Clinic in Khanh Hoa that week and so the surgeons who had saved her were there to take care of the crisis. I happened to be visiting the hospital that week too. She was a tiny, frail girl, but her abdomen was so bloated it looked like she was full term pregrant. She was in horrible pain. I begged her to keep fighting, and cried with her Mom, and slipped some money into her pocket, fully expecting it to help pay for her funeral.

She fought her way back again, and after years and years and years of misery, she lives a sedate but good life. We are thrilled that we saved her, but so sad that we didn’t find her earlier. She missed so much.

At the same time that this was going on with Thao, we received the heart stopping call one Thursday morning, that our granddaughter was in ICU in New York City and had been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and was going to have to have surgery. She was 18 months old, and it had always been thought that asthma was her problem. On Friday the diagnosis was confirmed and the best doctor found. On Saturday the surgery was scheduled. On Tuesday they operated and on Thursday, one week after diagnosis, she was bubbly and happy and left the hospital! One week from diagnosis to post op discharge! What a blessing for her and our family and what a contradiction for me seeing all of these children who wait and wait and wait.

My husband had his first heart surgery that year, and a few months later in Feb, 2008 had open heart surgery. I experienced first hand the challenges and stress of taking care of one you love during heart episodes, and after surgery.

These Moms deserve medals for their courage, their dedication and most of all their perserverance. Only the ones who fight find their way to help their child. We always connect at the hospital. They know that I know what they have been through and how their heart has been broken to bits over and over with every crisis. Now they have hope again that their child might march forward into the rest of their childhood. They know their child lives with health, hope and happiness….every mothers dream.

Entry 2 by Robin

Someone asked me the other day about what it was like for poverty stricken children in the countryside. My job has taken me to tiny hamlets and precious, poor families struggling to feed their families every day.

I have always been struck by how many happy children I see in the countryside. Despite their poverty many children have a wonderful carefree life. However, for a child with heart disease, and for the family trying to care for them, there is no day that is carefree. The child struggles every day for energy and breath and to live a normal life. The parents struggle every day to find the money to provide the care and medicines the child needs. Heart disease is a horrible medical problem, but it is also a devastating financial problem.

We routinely see children in their teens who have yet to be diagnosed with heart disease. They have languished their entire lives in sickness, never knowing why they were so ill because the doctors who could tell them were hundreds of miles away. If they were sick, and the family had no transportation- no bicycle, no motorbike, no access to care they just stayed sick. They had no hope of ever changing their lives.

Because of this, VCF created a program of outreach clinics to go out to the provinces with the diagnostic equipment, the surgeons and the cardiologists to do free care, free diagnosis, free post op check ups. Children in the countryside no longer have to go to all the way to Ho Chi Minh City – sometimes a 10 to 12 hour trip.

Last year we gave 1535 children free care. This year we hope to serve over 3000. Our dream is to find the children early and fix their little hearts before they miss all the joys of childhood. We hope you will share our dream and help us to help these children.

Entry 1 by Robin

People ask me all the time why we focus on children with heart disease. I tell them “because I can really make a difference!”

The first time I gave money and literally saved a child’s life, I was hooked. There is a tremendous feeling of joy and accomplishment when you know you have saved a child. All of us on the VCF team have the daily joy of knowing we have saved over 850 precious hearts.

Children with heart disease can’t lead a normal life. They can’t run and play. Some children can’t walk across the room without help and they fight for every breath. They miss out on their childhood.

I have seen children walk into the office with skin so gray, and lips so blue, it hurts just to look at them. The miracle is, that when you visit them in the hospital after surgery, their skin is rosy, their fingers, toes and lips are pink for the first time in their lives. They brim over with energy and their smiles are amazing. It never fails to make my heart soar to know that we changed that child’s life forever.

Our goal is to find the children early, and fix their broken hearts, so that they can have a normal childhood. There are thousands of poor children waiting for our help.

We hope you will join us as a friend, a volunteer, a supporter and partner in saving these precious hearts.