Stories From The Brave Little Hearts – Mend The Heart for K’Thinh, a Poor K’Ho Ethnic Baby

Heartbeat Vietnam would like to introduce our fourth Brave Little Heart. His name is K’Thinh, a nearly 12-month-old baby. K’Thinh is a K’Ho ethnic minority baby who has been diagnosed with Congenital Ventricular Hypertrophy disease. He urgently needs surgery to have a healthy life.

Heartbeat Vietnam visited K’Thinh’s home in Di Linh, a remote ward in the highland of Lam Dong. K’Thinh’s house sits on the side of a slope that shows signs of turning into a landslide. The fragile shack that is supported only by a few posts made of rotting wood is subjected to collapse at any time. This is a place called “home” to a young ethnic K’Ho couple, K’Thang and K’Thim along with their four children.

K’Thinh and K’Thoai are twins and also the youngest in the family. They have two older sisters, one 4-year-old and one in second grade. On the day K’Thinh received free general health screening in Bao Loc City through the VinaCapital Foundation’s Rural Outreach Clinics Program, the doctors of Tam Duc Heart Hospital found that K’Thinh had congenital ventricular hypertrophy and a heart operation was required. Since the diagnosis, K’Thinh’s father, K’Thang, has been working far away from home to feed the family, along with trying to save money for Thinh’s hospital fees. His mother, K’Thiem, stays home to look after the children.

Working vigorously, the father experienced constant ill health, but hadn’t dared to buy any medicine for two consecutive months just so he could save the little money he earned. The young father suffers from back pain as a result of having to perform arduous tasks, such as continuously loading and carrying cement sacks, trying to collect every dong to bring back to the family. Curing K’Thinh’s heart and building a healthy home seem but a dream to the family. Despite the hardship,  K’Thinh’s father will never give up, especially when cries from his wife are the only thing he hears when he calls home.

While sharing their story with us, K’Thinh’s parents couldn’t help but worry if they would find enough food for six people the next day, not to mention whether they will ever afford heart surgery for K’Thinh. We said our goodbyes to the family right when the sun started to dip behind the darkened paddy fields. We left, determined to assist K’Thinh and his parents. We need your help to do that.

Donate to help K’Thinh and other disadvantaged children with congenital heart defects HERE.