The Surgery changes the life of a two-month-old baby with congenital heart defects

Baby Hanh Nguyen was born on a day at the end of September 2021 in Dong Thap province. Her appearance is a gift to the small family who was lacking the warmth of a child’s laughter. Unfortunately, Hanh Nguyen was diagnosed with congenital heart defects (the ventricular septal defect and the coarctation of the aorta) when her mother was in the 13th week of pregnancy. At that time, her family could not afford an operation and they were also not aware of the danger of this disease.

In mid-November 2021, when Hanh Nguyen was vaccinated at the City Children’s Hospital, the doctors detected abnormalities after carefully examining her heart. She was immediately assigned to be admitted to the hospital and undergo an urgent surgery due to the big hole in her heart that didn’t close the way it should after birth. If she was not treated early, it could take her life forever. Right at that moment, it seemed then as if the mother’s heart would have broken. Hanh Nguyen’s mother both loved her child and gave up hope because the estimated surgery cost of 150,000,000 VND obviously exceeded her family’s budget. Her father is the breadwinner with a monthly salary of only 4,500,000 VND. This income is not enough to cover the day-to-day necessities for Hanh Nguyen’s small family of three and her grandparents. When Hanh Nguyen was admitted to the hospital, the innocent baby was only two months old. She was too tiny to understand that she was about to have the biggest surgery of her life.

Understanding the family’s current difficult circumstances and the urgency of her operation, Heartbeat Vietnam immediately contacted the family to support the life-saving surgery cost for Hanh Nguyen. This cost was covered by the fundraising campaign of Heartbeat Vietnam on ZaloPay, reciprocal health care agreements, and donations from other partners. At the end of November 2021, our little brave heart, Hanh Nguyen, finally had her timely and successful surgery.

In April 2022, the Heartbeat Vietnam team visited Hanh Nguyen for her third follow-up examination. She is now looking more perky and agile in the arms of her parents. Hanh Nguyen’s mother could not hide her excitement and gratitude for the HBVN program to see that Hanh Nguyen was in such a healthy state, having gained weight and recovering very well after the operation. For us, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a happy and smiling child, an overflowing joy in their parents’ eyes, and the door to the child’s future wide open with so many good things waiting ahead.

The VinaCapital Foundation and the Heartbeat Vietnam program team would like to express our sincere thanks to our partner, ZaloPay, and the user community for joining hands with us to help provide the heart surgery opportunity to the children. Thanks to the donation, Hanh Nguyen and other beneficiary children can now return to a normal life with new healthy hearts. Their families can also focus on their work to increase their incomes and prepare their children for a better future. HBVN will continue to monitor the growth journey of the children and update the latest health status in the upcoming posts.