Save the Little Hearts

A new committee to manage what we used to call “Save the Little Hearts” congenital heart disease program has been formed. We had our initial meeting on Monday, March 19th at Dohtonburi Japanese Restaurant in Greenhills. At that time, we confirmed the name as “Rotary’s Heart for Little Angels.” We are honored to be designated as the club’s Centennial Legacy project by RCM Centennial Chair, PDG Obet Pagdanganan. Obet is serving on our committee, along with Star Rotarian Zdenek Jankovsky, Rtn Johnny Chotrani, Rtn Rosel Santos, PD Oca DelRosario, DGE Rudy Bediones, Rtn Vee David, and me.

We invited Ms. Joyce Sacao-Alumno to join us. You might remember Joyce as the Country Manager and President of Aster DM Healthcare. Joyce had initiated “Save the Little Hearts” in the Philippines as the charity of DM Healthcare’s Chairman, Dr. Azad Moopen. They funded the surgeries in India for the three cases that we sent last year. Aster has ended its support of these cases in the Philippines. Joyce left Aster is now the Chairman and CEO of Health-core, a health care and accreditation consultancy and training corporation.

Our committee expects to take over the remaining cases from “Save the Little Hearts,” as well as getting cases referred by the pediatric cardiologists handling charity cases at the various hospitals, referrals from Gift of Life International, and from our own promotional efforts. Our committee discussed the needs, the opportunities for service, and possible strategies for maximizing our success in the short and longer run.

Every year in the Philippines, about 18,000 children are born with significant congenital heart disease, and most are from indigent families. There is a substantial backlog of patients already qualified for the surgery, but the waiting time is still very long and some patients die before they can be saved. The full price for the surgery here in the Philippines runs from P600,000 to over a million. In addition to PhilHealth coverage, each case usually costs an additional P20,000 to as much as P200,000, depending on diagnosis. We require the families to apply for PCSO assistance, then we need to fund the remainder. So far, our own club contributions have ranged from a low of P28,000 to a high of P154,000. Thanks be to God; every case has been successful thus far.

Because the needs are so great, in addition to efforts within our own club, we will ask District 3810 clubs that have not been availing of TRF District Mini-grants, to apply for these funds to contribute to this life-saving initiative. Further, we hope that all of the clubs in the district can fund at least one case per year, through the mini-grants, and through their own fund-raising, as well. The Governor’s challenge to the district clubs this year includes that they participate in or organize at least one Centennial-related activity. It will be great if many D3810 clubs choose to help RCM save these precious angels during our centennial, but even starting right now. We think that we can handle perhaps as many as 200 cases a year, maybe more, which would be a phenomenal gift to the country!

The committee also reviewed the patient application form that I had drafted. We will post the application and supporting information online in the website and Facebook pages that Rtn Zdenek Jankovsky is developing for us.

The need for expanding the capacity to perform the surgeries in government hospitals throughout the Philippines is essential to save more lives. Access to this high-level care is extremely limited throughout the country, so those patients who are the poorest in the far away provinces are those most likely to die. Accordingly, we are already collaborating with the Philippine Heart Center to develop a TRF Global Grant proposal for about P10 million, to renovate and equip a surgical unit in a hospital in Iloilo, so that they can handle cases from that region. I have already had two conversations with PHC’s Executive Director Dr Joel Abanilla on this topic, and we have a rescheduled conference call with Mr. Rob Raylman, President of Gift of Life International (GOLI), next Monday, the 26th.

Earlier on Monday, I had the second extended Skype conference call with Mr. Raylman at Gift of Life. GOLI is a 43-year old charity, based in Connecticut, which has provided more than 37,000 life-saving Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) surgeries around the world. GOLI is not a Rotarian organization, but they work with almost exclusively with Rotary, through more than 100 Rotary clubs and districts around the world. At the present time, GOLI is involved in handling more than USD $5,000,000 in TRF grants. We expect to work with them in a number of ways. Globally, they get more patient applications from the Philippines than from any other country; our need here is the largest. We need to help as many as we can. GOLI will refer cases to us, and they will assist in funding, in fund-raising and in our applications for Global Grants, both for patient funding and for service capacity expansion. GOLI is already working with our daughter club, RC Cebu. They will be opening a new surgery facility in Cebu in June and think they can handle at least 60 cases there before the end of the calendar year.

In addition to Gift of Life, our committee will be reaching out to other charities that support CHD surgeries around the world, which is why we did not name our initiative as GOL. GOL also works with RC Makati West, and we will coordinate with them, too. The web sites and brochures that Zdenek is developing will help build awareness of our project to both attract patients needing help, and for attracting charitable support from outside of Rotary. We believe that, just as many from our club have generously supported this initiative, that there will be many other generous individual, charities, and companies outside of Rotary that will help, as we tell the stories of the needs and the successes.

Ching is providing committee support. Joyce is helping us learn how to handle the cases. We are determined to create a sustainable legacy project for our club, our district, and our country. We will advise when we need of more funds. If you wish to join the committee, please let me know. Thank you for your continuing interest and support.