Eight children undergo corrective heart surgery at South Korea

KOTA KINABALU: The Society for the Sabah Heart Fund (SOSHF) recently sent eight young hole-in-the-heart patients to South Korea.
According to SOSHF honorary secretary, Eva Susau, this was the first batch of patients that were sent by the society, together with the Korean Food for the Hungry International, to undergo corrective heart surgery at Bucheon Sejong Hospital in South Korea.
She stressed that the cost of corrective heart surgery was very expensive and range between RM30,000 and RM35,000 per patients, depending on the complexity of each cases.
However, there have been cases where the SOSHF has to fork out more than RM50,000 for the treatment cost of one patient.
“We are happy with this collaboration with the Korean Food for the Hungry International, the Bucheon Sejong Hospital, the Seong An Heart Disease Children Foundation and some Korean NGOs. The OSHF also wishes to thank all who have been involved and especially to the State government under the Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman, who has been very kind and caring by giving us a grant for this project and also to all generous donors for their kind donations which has helped us send more patients undergo corrective heart surgery,” she said.
She added that as of todate, the SOSHF has already sent 565 patients for corrective heart surgery since 1981.
And the number of patients sponsored under the ‘Free medical operation’ programme to Korea has risen to 98 patients since 2007.
The second batch is scheduled to undergo corrective heart surgery during the second half of this year.
Eva also updated that they have also sent four patients to undergo corrective heart surgery at the Gleneagles Intan Hospital at Kuala Lumpur and that two more were scheduled to leave for the operation by the end of this month.
She urged for more support, adding that there were many children in the waiting list for corrective heart surgery.
Meanwhile, the mother of one of the patients bound for Korea yesterday, Janet Mongulemgoom, expressed her gratitude to the SOSHF and their Korean counterpart for making it possible for her three years old son, Hans Ivanne Jonathan, to undergo corrective heart surgery.
“He has a small hole in his heart. I have come to know of this when he was only two weeks old because I asked the doctor to conduct a very thorough check on him. I, too, have this problem when I was younger,” she said.
Pamela Patrick, the mother of one year old Bradley Charles Watlie, was equally thankful that her son was selected for the free surgery.
Like Hans, Bradley also have a small hole in his heart.
“He is active, but he gets flu a lot. I hope that after the surgery, he will heal faster,”she said.
Cheng Lee Fung, the mother of four years old Hanson Koh meanwhile said that she hoped her son will eat more after the surgery.
She also expressed some concern and wondered how long the flight will take and how long the operation procedure would take.
ends.