Hassan’s Success Story
Since inception in 2012, we at Pakistan Children’s Heart Foundation (PCHF), have financially supported 5,008 child heart surgeries. This is the success story of 10-year-old Hassan, who was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) called Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA).
In CoA, a part of the aorta is narrower than usual. When the aorta is severely narrow, it could be life-threatening. During infancy, symptoms include difficulty in breathing and feeding, heavy sweating, irritability, pale skin etc. After infancy, children may have chest pain, headaches, high blood pressure, nosebleeds, muscle weakness among other signs.
In his hometown of Faisalabad, Hassan was living life like other children his age. One day though, his parents found him unconscious at home and he had to be rushed to the hospital. The whole family was in a state of severe shock after what happened.
Hassan had to stay at the local hospital for around 15 days, during which he underwent various medical tests. One of those was an Echocardiography (ECHO), which is a cardiac ultrasound. The results of the ECHO confirmed the presence of his potentially fatal CHD.
Hassan’s family was informed that he needed life-saving heart surgery as soon as possible. As the procedure was both complicated and expensive, they were told to travel to Lahore and visit Dr. M. Asim Khan, a renowned Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon.
They wasted no time whatsoever and set up a meeting with Dr. Asim. Being a PCHF Medical Advisory Board Member, he was the one who apprised them of our organization after listening to how much they needed financial support.
Hassan’s father, who works as a Police Constable, is the sole breadwinner in a family of 5. After learning of us and our cause, he felt genuinely hopeful. He called us and one of our team members swiftly scheduled a meeting.
Being among Pakistan’s top organizations in the field of CHD, we have saved the lives of many children suffering from the same condition as Hassan. Also being blessed with an exceptional donor base, which includes both institutions and individuals standing alongside us, arranging funds for heart procedures is done promptly as well.
After the evaluation of Hassan’s case, it was decided that his surgery would be carried out at one of our partner hospitals in Lahore, Ittefaq Hospital (Trust). Dr. Asim would be the surgeon himself and his world-class team of allied healthcare professionals would be alongside him.
What is truly admirable is that Hassan’s father, despite his predicament, was able to arrange 50% of the required funds. With all other formalities also taken care of, as Hassan was going in for surgery and the battle for his life, his loved ones were also doing all they could to encourage him.
What followed were the most challenging hours of their lives. Once the procedure was done though, it was our privilege to inform Hassan’s family that he had emerged from it as a ‘CHD Warrior’. With our help, he had defeated CHD!
His family remained a symbol of strength throughout the entire process and that was inspirational. Hassan’s father mentioned how proud he was of him and that he wanted his son to now run, play around and live a normal life like other children. He thanked us wholeheartedly for making all that possible.
For CHD affected families, no matter how hard things get, no matter how impossible things may seem, we at PCHF – charity you can trust with all your heart, are here for you. Our goal is to ensure that not a single child born with CHD in Pakistan remains untreated.
Legendary Pakistani cricketer, Misbah Ul Haq, is also alongside us on our journey to conquering CHD, as a PCHF Board Member and Brand Ambassador of our flagship project, Pakistan’s first dedicated Children’s Heart Hospital & Research Institute.
You can join us as well and donate towards child heart treatment or hospital construction. Together, let’s do our utmost to save young lives and help shape a brighter future. To donate towards healing little hearts: https://pchf.org.pk/donate/
https://pchf.org.pk/banks-list/
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