LHAF Open Heart Program

In the countryside of Viet Nam quality health care remains difficult to access. Many families can not afford the travel costs associated with reaching hospitals that have the capacity to diagnosis heart disease. Consequently these families do not become clearly aware of the seriousness of the medical problem their child faces.

Those that do reach a hospital and learn that their child has a heart disease are likely to find that the cost of corrective surgery is prohibitive. Often such families return home in despair and with no choice but to care for the child as best they can until the heart fails.

These very real situations are preventable.

The OPEN HEART program works and cooperates with the provincial level of the Vietnamese Committee for Population, Family, and Children (CPFC). The CPFC compiles a list of children with suspected heart disease within each district of the province. Together with LHAF, these children are systematically sent to either the Hue General Hospital for medical examination.

LHAF, in cooperation with the Hue General Hospital and the Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC) at the Hue Medical University, will arrange for a definitive diagnosis, surgery schedule, and cost of surgery.

Once these processes are completed LHAF staff visits each family's home to conduct a socio/economic assessment in order to make a decision on the level of funding. Children with the most urgent medical need (as identified by diagnosis from Hue Hospital) will receive funding first.

LHAF commitments will be paid post-surgery, directly to Hue Hospital. Cost of medicines, when a child must obtain a certain level of health before surgery can proceed, will be made directly to families upon verifiable receipts. For families in extreme poverty and living in remote villages, reimbursement for travel expenses will be considered and determined by LHAF staff.

Depending on medical complications, the cost of open heart surgery in Viet Nam can range from 1,500 usd up to approximately 3,500 usd. A donation of as little as 500 usd will often make the difference for a poor family, allowing them the opportunity to raise the remaining funds by borrowing within the family, or obtaining a small bank loan, or selling one of their livestock, or receiving additional funding from other charitable sources.

Open Heart Proposals | Procedures In-Progress | Open Heart Final Reports