For the past week, volunteers have been in Kharkiv, Ukraine performing free heart surgeries on children who would otherwise die. Your donations make this program possible. Two reports "from the field":
Meet Peter
Peter has been waiting for 4 months for the surgery to save his life.
When he was just a day old, he was diagnosed with four different defects of his young heart. His parents were told he would need to wait until 4 months of age to get his surgery.
So mom, dad and Peter waited patiently. Finally, February 17 came and Peter got the surgery they had been waiting so long for.
Peter's mother is is beautiful, yet shy. She walked into the ICU and as she sat down and saw her son for the first time since surgery, she cried. Tears of joy, but also tears of sorrow. It was shocking to her to see her son hooked up to the heart monitors, ventilator and IV.
By the end of the night, she was able to hold him in her arms and breastfeed him.
She was again very overwhelmed the next morning when she carried her baby from the ICU. She wrapped him in his favorite blanket and returned to their regular room. Peter is the center of the universe for his mother. When he was in surgery, and the hours immediately following, one could almost see the cloud of gloom floating over her head. But the moment she could walk him out of the ICU to be with him in a regular room, the clouds lifted. In the days since, it is clear to see the status of Peter's recovery by the smile that is, or is not, on mom's face.
Meet Bogdana
"After we are told that this is it, that there is NO hope -- you bring us hope."
When Bogdana's mother discovered that Bogdana had Down's syndrome and a congenital heart defect, her husband left the family, leaving her -- a teacher -- alone with Bogdana and two other children.
They live in the countryside near Kharkiv. At 20 days old, Bogdana was brought to the hospital in Kharkiv after she was not growing in weight or height like a typical child. Bogdana's mother was told that there was nothing that Kharkiv could do. They did not have the resources needed to do the surgery there. She should go to Kyiv. In Kyiv, surgery was postponed over and over again for two years.
Bogdana needed surgery as soon as possible. Her young heart had so little muscle, that instead of having four separate chambers, her heart looked as though it only had one.
Thanks to your support, Bogdana is recovering from her life-saving surgery, while her mom reads to her from her favorite book. She cannot understand the letters or read to herself yet, but she is always very interested in the pictures as mom reads her favorite stories.
Bogdana's mother hopes she will grow up healthy and happy. She says, "Just as god loves every person, I want my children to be loving and to love all different people unconditionally."
