The Journey to Healing – 2021

Over the past year, LWB India Foundation and LWB USA have worked together as a united team to help 56 Indian children receive life changing medical care at some of the best hospitals in the country. These children come from the poorest sections of the society. Their parents often struggle to get proper medical treatment done for their child and are desperate to get assistance. We hope you will enjoy reading the journey of four such children whom we were able to help in 2021.

One-year-old Aniket was born with a ToF heart defect. ToF stands for “Tetralogy of Fallot,” meaning that the child has four different, but related, heart defects. The family recognized breathing difficulties at the young age of 12 days old, and since then, they’ve had quite the road to finding a way to get the operation their baby needed. We were glad to be a final and successful stop – Aniket has now received his ToF surgery and has a healed heart! A month after the surgery, we are told that the boy who found it difficult to take a few steps before his surgery now runs around his house. What a beautiful transformation it has been.

Puja was born with a cleft palate and needed corrective surgery. Unable to afford her granddaughter’s surgery, Puja’s grandfather reached out to us. Thanks to our LWB community, we were able to proceed with the surgery – and her cleft palate was corrected with great success. Four months after the surgery, Puja’s family has reported that she has become very joyful and is full of smiles.

Ratul is another one-year-old boy that we supported for heart surgery. He is an only child and lives with his mother, father, and grandmother in a small home built by the government. His father works as a daily labourer and earns about Rs. 175/day. Upon learning about Ratul’s ToF (Tetralogy of Fallot) heart condition, the family went directly to see about getting government support for the needed surgery. Unfortunately, the length of time they were going to need to wait (made especially lengthy due to COVID), was longer than what Ratul could handle.

Next, Ratul’s parents approached a charity organization for help. While that organization couldn’t help financially, they did help by directing the family to us. We are so glad that we were able to say “yes” to helping to support Ratul. Ratul’s surgery was a great success, and his recovery has been smooth. It’s been four months since his surgery, and Ratul’s parents are extremely pleased to see his transformation from being a child who had difficulty breathing and often went pale to one who is full of activities and is so happy!

Not only is our program making a difference in saving the lives of children, but it is also changing the lives of their families and their communities.   Not only did Gwen receive life-saving heart surgery for TGA (Transposition of the great arteries) and VSD (Ventricular septal defect) congenital heart defects, but our support provided relief and joy to her parents as well.   Even the community members were rejoicing seeing Gwen with a healed heart!   Six months after her surgery, Gwen is playing and growing just like any child should.   Her grateful family has said to us “I love the way you care for my family, and I hope one day she can grow up and be like you to help the needy and just stand beside them.”

We are so grateful for our LWB community that has made all these surgeries possible. Thank you!