William, just two years old, has a complicated congential heart defect. An ICHF medical team first operated on him a year ago in April, 2007. He was scheduled for his stage two surgery, a very high risk procedure, during this April 2008 visit, but it has been postponed until July, three months from now, because of an infection. Additionally, William has a very rare blood type. The hospital must have four pints of blood for the operation. Usually, family members and friends will donate the necessary blood for surgery, but William’s mother could not find enough people with WIlliam’s blood type.
The family lives in San Juan, almost seven hours from the Santiago hospital. The private hospital in San Juan had too long a waiting list, so they could not help William in time to save his life. His mother learned of the Sanitago program and the ICHF team from a friend.
The ICHF team will see William when they return in July and, hopefully, the surgery can go ahead as planned and save this young boys life.