Uganda Children Arrive July 7 in Washington, D.C. for Life-Saving Heart Surgery

Samaritan's Purse
Wednesday, 2 July 2003

Powerful Team Unites to a Give Children Second Chance at Life:

Two Ugandan children with congenital heart defects arrive in Washington D.C. for life-saving heart surgery at Children's National Medical Center.

After traveling thousands of miles from their homeland in Eastern Africa, Deborah Lwanga, age 3, and Hassan Bukenya, age 5, arrive in Washington D.C. for heart surgery at Children's National Medical Center.

Deborah and Hassan are the first Ugandan children that Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project has brought to the United States for critical heart care. The children were diagnosed with congenital heart disease by Children's National Medical Center's cardiologist, Dr. Craig Sable, on a recent medical mission to Uganda. A team of cardiac specialists will evaluate and repair their defects over the next few weeks. The cost of the surgeries will be subsidized by the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation and Larry King Cardiac Foundation.

Samaritan's Purse has arranged for the children, their mothers, and an interpreter to be hosted by a local Fairfax Station, Va., family and volunteers from Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Va., during their five-week stay.

Samaritan's Purse works with more than 45 hospitals in North America and has brought more than 200 children from countries including Bosnia, Mongolia, and Kosovo. In addition to bringing children to North American for life-saving heart surgery, the international relief organization also provides 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