By LaRelle Catherman | Executive Director
Globally, heart disease, genetic or congenital, is a leading cause of death of children in many countries, including Vietnam. The good news is that the rate of survival is increasing. This is due, in part, to two main reasons: 1) an increase in early detection and diagnosis and 2) the access to the needed surgeries for poor families. But there are still problems for many rural families -- the lingering effects of poverty and the inability to get to the needed locations where the surgery can be done safely.
There are several logistics that must be overcome. The first is to gain recognition of financial need via a government-issued “poor card”. n the West we might think of this as discrimination, however, in Vietnam it is the necessary “ticket” to get access to specialized health care for a child in need of surgery.
The second need is transportation to the nearest cardiac center where the child can be reevaluated with sophisticated equipment and expert knowledge of the heart doctors. Then a surgery must be scheduled. And the next key factor is whether-or-not the hospital has the funding to sponsor this infant, child or young adult. Without money to pay, how can the child receive the needed life-saving surgery?
This is where MEDRIX steps in. MEDRIX is a not for profit organization that sponsors life-saving heart surgery primarily for children and infants. To date MEDRIX has sponsored 116 such surgeries.
We have heard many heart-wrenching stories, shared times of laughter and times of great relief, and celebrated the results after recovery from a successful surgery. Only on very rare occasions, (only 3 times in the last 17 years) have we lost a patient who was too ill to survive. We are grateful for the many excellent doctors and nurses and para-medical persons who have asked MEDRIX to join with them in saving lives of precious little ones. We thank you too for supporting MEDRIX to support LIFE SAVING HEART SURGERY.
These are just a few of our wonderful clients:
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