Lianah’s mom has never been out of Africa, or even Uganda, but she is ready with her brand-new passport. The prospect of traveling outside her country is a frightening one, but Robinah is ready and willing. Her daughter, Lianah, has a very fragile heart. She just turned one, but at 14.5 pounds, she simply is not gaining enough weight. Her breathing is heavy and labored. She’s in urgent need of surgery.
Some of my favorite parts about doing this work for so long are the moments when we see the help given to one child go on to impact another. It’s like that beautiful analogy of a pebble being dropped in the water whose ripples go on to touch ever-widening circles.
As Down Syndrome Awareness month moves into National Adoption Month this November, we want to introduce baby Jordyn. Jordyn was born with Down Syndrome and now needs emergency heart surgery to survive…so that someday she can hopefully have a family of her own. We recently received a call from an orphanage in Anhui. A beautiful two-month-old baby girl in their care was suspected of having a serious heart defect in addition to being diagnosed with Down Syndrome. When they asked if we could help her get the quality medical evaluations she needed, we quickly agreed.
On Christmas Eve, a tiny preemie baby was found in rural Anhui. Baby Stephen, as he came to be called, weighed a little more than two pounds and needed immediate intervention to remain alive.
Thankfully, his orphanage called us right away, and he was moved to the top children’s hospital in his home province where he began a fight for his life.
Read more.
Little Erin is a beautiful ten-month-old girl with Down Syndrome who has been living at our Heartbridge Healing Home. In addition to being diagnosed with Down Syndrome, Erin also has a heart defect called ventricular septal defect, or VSD. Heart defects are actually a very common health issue for children born with Down Syndrome.
Recently, our nannies noticed that Erin’s lips and fingers were turning blue when she exerted herself and that she needed a break during feedings. Read more.
She’s my Kathleen, so fair and bright, evening star and morning light…so go the lyrics of the Irish folk song, “My Kathleen”. We are happy to be helping a one-year-old baby girl named Kathleen…and we sure think she is fair and bright!
Kathleen is one year old and lives in an orphanage in Jiangsu province. She was born with congenital heart disease and has lived with it for a year. Read more
Most people who’ve heard the story of Love Without Boundaries know that it all began with one baby boy born with congenital heart disease and a group of parents who wanted to help him. Since 2003, we’ve provided life-changing operations to thousands of orphaned and impoverished children, with over 750 of those receiving heart surgery.
Thanks to the partnerships we’ve built with some of the top cardiac hospitals in China as well as the generosity of our incredible supporters, we’ve been able to repeatedly celebrate the remarkable health transformations that can come through open heart surgery. Read more.
Last week, five-month-old baby Arthur arrived at the hospital in Shanghai attended by a nanny from his orphanage in Jiangxi province. Read more.
Last fall, we were contacted about an eight-month-old baby girl with severe congenital heart disease. Her orphanage had recently sent her to Beijing, but doctors there felt there was nothing that could be done surgically for her.
Luna, as she came to be known, was suffering from repeated bouts of respiratory infections and pneumonia, and it was clear that without something being done quickly, she would not survive. Read more.
This beautiful baby came to us during the last week of 2015, during the season of joy — and thus was named baby Joy!
Joy is ten months old and needs surgery as soon as possible to repair two holes in her little heart which are causing her health to fail. Joy also has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome, and it is fairly common for children with Down Syndrome to also have congenital heart issues. Read more.
