From Mongolia to Las Vegas: Two Children Arrive Tuesday for Life-Saving Heart Surgery

Samaritan's Purse
Monday, 4 June 2001

Local Community Teams Up with Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse to Give Children Medical Treatment Unavailable in Their Country

Two children from Mongolia with serious heart defects are not old enough to know the magnitude of the gift they will soon receive. What their families know is that next month these children will return to their homeland with a second chance to live normal, healthy lives.

Six-year-old Usukhbayar Baasandorj and 4-year-old Naranjargal Oyun-Erdene will arrive in Las Vegas on Tuesday, June 5 with their mothers and an interpreter, courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, the international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. These are the first children Samaritan's Purse has sent to Las Vegas.

Currently there is only one pediatric cardiologist in the entire country of Mongolia serving at a hospital with very limited resources and equipment. Over the past year, Samaritan's Purse has equipped this doctor with an echocardiogram machine and provided additional training to help children like Usukhbayar and Naranjargal. The relief organization finds hospitals in the U.S. willing to donate their services.

Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project identifies children with life-threatening heart disease in countries that lack technology and training, and matches them with surgeons and hospitals in the United States that are willing to donate their time and services. A local Las Vegas hospital is providing the medical treatment free of charge.

Samaritan's Purse handled travel logistics for the children, their mothers, and an interpreter; paid all travel expenses; and arranged for Trinity Life Center Church and a local family to host the children during their recovery period in the United States.

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