Angline, just 3 years old, lies in a hospital bed thousands of miles away from his home in Uganda, East Africa. His big brown eyes curiously watch the busy nurses. His small hands cautiously investigate the wires taped to his chest.
“Our little guy learned a new word at church yesterday,” says Cathy Siegel, executive director of San Antonio’s HeartGift program. “What was it, Angline?”
Angline concentrates very hard. Then, with a bit of prompting, he sings out: “Hallelujah!”
It’s appropriate.
In the morning, this adorable child will face an operation to mend a hole in his heart. Surgeons will give him a chance for a healthy future.
There couldn’t be a better reason to sing praise.
Providing children from developing countries with lifesaving surgery for heart defects is the mission of HeartGift, a humanitarian organization that dispenses hope worldwide through its chapters in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans.
More than 135 children from 22 countries – kids with ventricular septal defect (VSD) and other congenital heart problems – have received surgical repairs to date. Seventeen of these surgeries have been done at HeartGift San Antonio’s partner facility CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital – seven in 2011.
As San Antonio HeartGift’s executive director, Siegel has photos that testify to the success stories: pictures of kids of many nationalities happily running, playing and looking forward to bright futures.
Without these heart surgeries that are performed gratis by dedicated doctors and supported by partner hospitals, medical resources and community volunteers, the stories would be quite different. Unable to find treatment in their home countries, the youngsters’ normal activities would be severely curtailed. Their ever-worsening heart disease would cut down their lifespans.
A heart-defective child born in the United States can expect to have the condition rectified early on. But quite the opposite is true for kids born in less medically advanced places where specialized care is either scarce or nonexistent.
According to the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, an astonishing 93 percent of the world’s population does not have access to pediatric heart surgery. The International Children’s Heart Foundation reports that one of every 100 children born in the developing world will never see a first birthday because of congenital heart disease.
“We only wish we could help more kids,” emphasizes Dr. John H. Calhoon, who is vice chair of the HeartGift San Antonio board of directors and one of three surgeons who performs the HeartGift operations at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa. “My hope is that someday this program will expand to every state and country. I’d like to see our medical technology available throughout the world so every child in need could be reached.”
HeartGift began with a desperate need some 12 years ago. Dr. John D. “Chip” Oswalt, an Austin cardiothoracic surgeon, was made aware of some youngsters in Kosovo whose hearts had to be mended. No facilities were available in their nation to accomplish this, and the youngsters’ prognosis was bleak.
Oswalt went right to work on the case, managing to secure underwriting from what is now Dell Children’s Medical Center for five children, plus private sponsorship for the sixth. The Kosovo kids were flown to Austin, where the lifesaving operations took place and were a resounding success.
About a year later, the Austin physician went on an Amazon fishing trip with commercial real estate developer Ray Wilkerson. The fishing buddies got to talking about the Kosovo experience. Oswalt mused that if only he had a million dollars, maybe he could set up a foundation and extend such services to other children around the world.
It sounded like an impossible dream at the time, Oswalt reflects. But Wilkerson mulled it over and declared that it really wasn’t impossible at all. It could happen, and he wanted to be involved. It was time for him to start giving back, Wilkerson said.
Another friend, Jim Hoover, would help, too.
Thus, the seeds for HeartGift were sown, with Oswalt as chairman of the foundation’s board of directors and Wilkinson as treasurer. Dell Children’s Center came aboard as the organization’s Austin partner hospital.
In 2000, the first patient, Vicky Salinas Dominguez from Honduras, underwent successful surgery in Austin. Other patients rapidly followed, as did additional HeartGift chapters, including the one now setting an enviable pace in San Antonio.
Children who come to San Antonio and the other HeartGift locations are referred by international humanitarian agencies such as Gift of Life, the Chinese Agape Foundation and Childspring International. Some kids are referred by medical professionals in their own countries.
Families frequently find HeartGift through their own research efforts. Soldiers see needy kids and ask for help on their behalf. Referrals also come from the organization’s website, which explains HeartGift’s mission in numerous languages.
Angline was referred by the Children’s Heart Project, an organization that has sent kids from far-flung places such as Bolivia and Mongolia to HeartGift in the past.
The youngsters accepted for surgery must have conditions that can be fixed in a one-time operation with no follow-up medical care necessary once they return to their home countries. Customarily, this means children born with atrial septal defect (ASD), tetralogy of fallot (TOF) and VSD, which was Angline’s problem.
It’s barely sunup when Angline is wheeled into the OR. Drs. Adil Husain and Lauren Kane, the cardiothoracic surgeons, are ready. Calhoon is standing by to assist, if needed. Beatrace, Angline’s mother, sits in the waiting area with HeartGift hosts, Flora and Dana York.
Helen, the interpreter, has earlier explained that Beatrace doesn’t speak English and has never been so far from the family farmland and her other seven children before. Conveniences taken for granted in this country are sources of wonder to the mother from Uganda. So is the concern for her child shown by people who were strangers just days ago.
“She is grateful for all the love and caring,” Helen says.
It may take a village to raise a child, but it also takes a community of caring individuals to make HeartGift work. Interpreters, people to provide meals and transportation, hospitals and host families – all are vital to the program’s success.
Hosts volunteer to open their homes to the visiting child and the parent or guardian. They act as a second set of parents for the youngster, and this is a special blessing when no member of the child’s own family is able to come along.
In a recent HeartGift case, for example, the mother had a stroke and couldn’t accompany her little one. A guardian was found to fill in and bring 15-month-old Zihao “Hao Hao” to San Antonio from China. Two families then shared the host/parental role.
Reflecting on their portion of this “timeshare,” Willie and Aliza Cantu can’t praise the experience enough.
“We picked up Hao Hao and his guardian, Lily, at the airport,” Willie recalls. “Hao Hao had the surgery; it lasted about four hours. He was with us for five weeks and took his first step while he was here. It was a privilege to watch him go from a very sick child to one who was laughing, playing and throwing kisses.”
“We learned to love Hao Hao quickly, and couldn’t help but cry when he left us to return home,” Aliza adds.
Saying goodbye is the hardest part of hosting. Still, the Cantus are eager for the opportunity again, praising everyone connected with the program, especially the doctors and staff at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa.
Dr. Thomas Mayes, chairman of HeartGift San Antonio’s board of directors and physician-in-chief at Santa Rosa, is proud of the part his hospital plays in helping youngsters like Hao Hao and Angline.
Santa Rosa has a long history of providing charity care to patients from other countries, he says. Indeed, giving the needy specialized care is central to the facility’s healing ministry, and combining forces with HeartGift fits in with the philosophy.
Unfortunately, specialized medical care is costly.
Though HeartGift surgeons donate their services for free, there are countless other costs: surgical materials, anesthetics, IVs and the like. Add it all up, Mayes continues, and a typical operation can run well over $160,000.
The hospital is reimbursed to the tune of $15,000, which comes from HeartGift and is generated through donations and fundraisers. Golf tournaments have been popular benefits, and this month’s San Antonio Cocktail Conference will raise funds for the cause.
Mayes hopes the upcoming benefit will get a big community turnout. He also encourages volunteering and donations of any size to the HeartGift organization, as do Calhoon, Husain and Kane, the members of HeartGift San Antonio’s surgical team.
The dedicated doctors are convinced that their medical mission can have far-reaching effects – even improve the U.S. image abroad.
“American medical expertise can positively impact countries in the developing world,” Calhoon explains, adding that a bond of understanding is forged with every developing nation reached and every child’s heart that is repaired.
Each HeartGift child is the recipient of the most modern technology and surgical techniques available. The skill surgeons demonstrate is amazing, as fixing Angline’s VSD clearly proved.
The Ugandan child had a serious VSD – an exceptionally large hole between the two lower blood-pumping chambers of the heart. Left untreated, such a defect is debilitating and can cause normal pumping function to go awry, likely leading to congestive heart failure and death. Therefore, it’s vital to operate as early as possible in a patient’s life.
“The chest wall is more pliable with a young child,” Kane points out. “There’s far less pain involved than when an adult has the surgery. As a rule, kids handle the operation very well.”
The operation involves opening the chest, entering the heart area and patching the hole with the patient’s own body tissue – a small flap cut from the heart sack. Surgeons’ gloved fingers must move steadily and with confidence during the delicate process.
There are risks. But Kane and Husain, physicians with steady nerves and even steadier hands, say it’s a relatively simple procedure – really just routine.
“It took us about three hours to do Angline’s surgery,” Husain reports. “Dr. Kane and I are pleased with the fantastic results … that lucky little boy should have no more problems.”
After Angline is released from the hospital, he spends some time recuperating with the HeartGift hosts. He gets a chance to be the star of a television documentary about his operation; he visits Sea World and has his photo taken on the big boots at North Star Mall.
In fact, Angline becomes quite the little celebrity while in Texas. And then he heads home to Uganda in time for Christmas with a priceless present.
Angline has been given a healthy heart.
The San Antonio Cocktail Conference, Jan. 26 – 29, will benefit HeartGift,
a program that offers free surgery to correct congenital heart defects in children from developing countries.
According to Cathy Siegel, executive director of San Antonio’s HeartGift program, the conference will be a signature event for downtown San Antonio. Activities will include evening galas, classes, contests and a weekend of happenings all centered on the craft of the cocktail.
The event will draw participants from throughout the country and bring together bars, vendors and community partners for a worthy cause, Siegel said. Proceeds will go to HeartGift San Antonio to provide more youngsters with the lifesaving surgery they need.
For a schedule of events, information on presenters and sponsors or online ticket sales, visit www.sacocktailconference.com.
To learn more about HeartGift or contribute to the cause, visit www.heartgift.org.
