K is six months old and lives in Ba Ria Vung Tau province. His parents borrowed money to undergo IVF after years of infertility. The joy of welcoming their child was short-lived, as K showed signs of cyanosis only three days after his birth and had to be monitored closely for treatment. Ever since, K and his Mom have been at the Children’s Hospital for heart catheterization, and then transferred to the Heart Specialist Hospital for further examination and surgery. These treatments are hard on a frail little body in the hope that the baby’s heart can soon be healthy again. K was diagnosed with a series of heart problems including: single ventricle, transposition of the great arteries (TGA), pulmonary valve stenosis.
Since K was born, his Mom has been accompanying him to the hospital regularly. As she had to stop working to care for him, their family’s finances depend solely on his Father, who works as a building maintenance technician with a monthly salary of around 9 million VND. The monthly expenses for rental, serving their loans and K’s medical costs have put them all at a hardship. For this recent round of surgery for their son, the estimated costs of hospital bills after deducting health insurance is at least 50 million VND. Albeit the stiff cost, should the surgery go well, K could recover. In order to pay for this, their family has managed to raise 30 million VND. K’s Mother has contemplated taking up a high interest-bearing loan from a local credit company if their financial situation hits the deadend. Lastly, as both sides of the families live in poor and remote provinces, they cannot help much in shouldering the expense burdens.
Currently, K has been admitted to the hospital, waiting for surgery. When the volunteers met with K and his Mother, the baby looked healthy and happy, but his Mother couldn’t hide her worries, thinking about her son’s upcoming major surgery in just a few days. The family can only make 10 million VND of the hospital bills. They hope that the surgery will be successful so that K can be in a more stable condition.
In the face of their family’s ongoing difficulties, Lotus Charity Foundation hopes to support them with 17 million VND for baby K. Of this amount, 15 million VND is for the hospital expenses and 2 million VND as care allowance. Hopefully, this surgery goes smoothly and K will soon recover well to have a good development under the unyielding love and care of his family.
