There was so much hope as the group of parents and their children made the trip to Malaysia—a visit that could save their children’s lives. Then, the first child died.
“I was so scared,” said Huth Yan, whose 14-year-old son Hay Im was next in line for surgery to correct a congenital heart defect.
The Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, which organized the trip, told them how serious the procedure was.
“But parents being parents, they hear what they want to hear,” said Jon Morgan, Angkor Hospital executive director. “Besides, other parents they had met before leaving all told them stories of sick kids made well.”
Only when Len Hy’s 3-year-old son died did they realize the gravity of the situation. Hay Im survived his surgery with no complications. “But I’m still scared,” he said.
The seven children and their parents, who returned to Cambodia at the end of June, were part of the Gift of Life program. The project enables some of Angkor Hospital’s young patients with congenital cardiac malformations to go to the Penang Adventist Hospital in Malaysia for surgery.
Without surgery, there is little hope for a long or healthy life. “Children with heart disease are small and thin, prone to infection, slow in development—walking, talking, running,” said Lap-Kong Yeung, a volunteer pediatrician at Angkor Hospital who went with the group. “It takes just one chest infection and they are dead.”
The program is funded by Rotary International, which has pledged $100,000 to the program, Penang Adventist Hospital and a few other organizations.
In addition, Royal Air Cambodge is donating $100,000 worth of plane tickets for the trips, and the Cambodian government is paying the cost of parents’ and children’s passports for the trip to this international heart center.
The first of several groups of children left for Malaysia in April 2000. Of the 26 children to have surgery to date, Len Hy’s son was the first casualty.
“Ny Nuon was very thin,” Len Hy said. “He was sick very often.” Surgery was the only option. But Ny Nuon’s heart could not get the blood to flow after reconstruction. “Two people left but just one came back,” said Len Hy, who accompanied his son to Malaysia.
It was a subdued group that returned to Cambodia on June 28. Another child in the group, 2-year-old Moeuth Sarath, had been declared inoperable in Malaysia.
Patients had been screened before making the trip, but after further tests at Penang Adventist Hospital, surgeons decided against operation.
“When they checked my daughter, my tears started to pour,” said Nhek Serey, whose daughter may live another 12 to 15 years. “When she was born, she looked normal, until she was 1 month old; then her mouth and nails turned blue.”
For 10-year-old Phan Chea, the trip was life changing. “Before, whenever I walked, I got tired,” Phan Chea said. Now he cannot stop smiling and talking. “[In Malaysia] I went for a walk, to the seaside, and to many places.”
