Mongolian Families Return Home With Heartfelt Gratitude

Samaritan's Purse
Tuesday, 29 May 2001

Local Norfolk Community Teams Up with Franklin Graham's Relief Organization to Give Children Life-Saving Heart Surgery

Two children from Mongolia with serious heart defects may not know the magnitude of the gift they just received, but their families do. On Wednesday, May 30, the children will return to their homeland with a second chance to live normal, healthy lives.

Over the past few weeks, 4-year-old Nyam-Erdene Ganbat and 8-year-old Altangerel Lkhagvasuren have been recovering from the life-saving heart surgery they received at Norfolk's Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters. Because the medical treatment necessary to save Nyam and Altangerel is unavailable in their country, the children were brought from Mongolia to Norfolk courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, the international Christian relief organization led by Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy Graham.

Samaritan's Purse handled travel logistics for the children, their mothers, and an interpreter; paid all travel expenses; and arranged for local families and New Life Christian Fellowship Church in Greenbriar to host the children during their five-week stay in the Norfolk area. Both children had life-threatening congenital heart defects. Nyam and Altangerel were the first children Samaritan's Purse brought to Norfolk from Mongolia.

Since the program started in 1997 in response to a critical need in Bosnia, Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project has brought more than 110 children to the United States for life-saving heart treatment. In addition to medical care, Samaritan's Purse provides state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and training for doctors overseas. The machines enable doctors in those countries to better diagnose defects, identify candidates for surgery, and ensure that the children are matched with the proper specialists in the U.S.

For more information, or to contact Samaritan's Purse, see their website at: www.samaritanspurse.org