Greenville community and relief organization led by Billy Graham's son to give two Mongolian Children life-saving surgery

Samaritan's Purse
Monday, 9 July 2001

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

Two boys 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.

Chimedtseren Ankhbayar and Tsogoo Sarantsogt, both only 10-months old, will arrive in Greenville Tuesday, July 10 with their mothers and an interpreter, courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, the North Carolina-based relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. These are the first children Samaritan's Purse has brought to Greenville as part of the organization's Children's Heart Project. Both boys have ventricular septal defect (VSD) and will be treated at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville by specialists with the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and in private practice. The hospital and physicians are donating their services.

Samaritan's Purse handled travel logistics for the children, their mothers, and an interpreter; paid all travel expenses; and arranged for Christ Presbyterian Church and two local families to host the children during their recovery period in the United States.

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 Ankhbayar and Sarantsogt.

The 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.

Since the program started in 1997 in response to a critical need in Bosnia, the Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project has brought more than 120 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