Critically Ill Children Arrive in Tampa Bay Area for Life-Saving Heart Surgery March 6

Samaritan's Purse
Tuesday, 4 March 2003

All Children's Hospital, Tampa Children's Hospital at St. Joseph's, and Franklin Graham Team Up to Give Kosovar Children a Second Chance at Life

Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, brings four young Kosovar children with congenital heart defects to the Tampa Bay area for life-saving heart surgery.

After traveling thousands of miles from their homeland, four children, ranging in age from 11-months-old to 8-years-old, arrive in Tampa for heart surgery at All Children's Hospital and Tampa Children's Hospital at St. Joseph's courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, the international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham.

Samaritan's Purse has also arranged for the children, their mothers, and interpreters to be hosted by volunteers from Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in Tampa, and First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg. The group members will be staying in area Ronald McDonald Houses for the first part of their five-week stay, and will then be hosted by church families.

Since 1997, the Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project has brought more than 185 children from Bosnia, Kosovo, and Mongolia to more than 45 hospitals in the United States and Canada for critical heart care. More than a dozen kids have received life-saving heart surgery through this project at All Children's Hospital and Tampa Children's Hospital at St. Joseph's since September 1998.

Samaritan's Purse identifies children with life-threatening heart defects in countries that lack technology and training, matching them with hospitals and surgeons in the United States and Canada who are willing to donate their time and services. Rotary Gift of Life is subsidizing the cost of the surgeries.

While the international relief organization is transporting critically ill children to the United States and Canada for care, Samaritan's Purse is also providing doctors and hospitals overseas with the equipment and training needed to diagnose heart defects and effectively treat sick children in their own countries.

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