Imagine being in a situation where your child has a cardiac lesion requiring surgery and you do not have access to the lifesaving treatment. You resign to the fact that your child will die soon and all you can do is spend every living moment with them.
Unfortunately, this is a sad reality for many children in Fiji and the South Pacific where there is no treatment available locally for children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD). The plight of these parents is unimaginable, and it dawns that access to healthcare is not always equitable. The only succor are the few visiting teams that come and operate on children.
Congenital Heart Disease, or a Congenital Heart Defect, is a heart abnormality present at birth. The problem can affect the heart walls, the heart valves and the blood vessels. There are numerous types of CHD’s. They can range from simple conditions that don’t cause symptoms to complex problems that cause severe, life-threatening symptoms requiring urgent surgery for survival.
About 1% of all children are born with CHD and in Fiji this equates to about 200 children being born with CHD every year. CHD ranks first among mortality caused by birth defects in children under 5-years-old. In 2016, The World Health Organization (WHO) informed that 9,274,915 children died due to heart anomalies. CHD can have genetic causes, but can also result after exposure to several risk factors such as maternal health and age as well as environmental factors.
The Gift of Life project took birth in 2016 when the Foundation realized the plight of many parents and children with CHD who could not afford expensive treatment overseas. It was an attempt to provide ongoing free heart surgeries to the underprivileged and needy children of Fiji to alleviate suffering of these innocent children who by no fault of theirs had this condition.
Currently there are no pediatric cardiac services available anywhere in Fiji and the Pacific, and overseas treatment is unaffordable for most families.
Under the guidance and direction of Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, with support from Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals India and its Chairman Mr C Sreenivas, Sai Prema Foundation Fiji identified this area of great need and embarked on a mission to save the lives of hundreds and thousands of children in Fiji and the Pacific, who without intervention, do not survive.
Thus far, the Foundation has undertaken free heart surgeries with the help of an international medical teams from USA, Australia, New Zealand, Oman, India, Singapore, United Kingdom, Slovenia and Czech Republic representing the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospitals India.
The average cost of overseas treatment for families in Fiji and the Pacific is approximately $100,000. Through this project, 277 children have received successful life-saving heart surgeries saving their families in excess of $27 million.
Seeing the difference that the Gift of Life Project made to the lives of children, Sai Prema Foundation was inspired to open the first Children’s Heart screening Centre in April 2019, providing free heart screenings for all children with the latest echocardiogram machine. Through this screening Centre, hundreds of children have been identified and will continue to have free heart surgery giving them a new gift of life.
Going a step further, the foundation embarked upon the largest project by a Non-Governmental Organisation in Fiji, the establishment of the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital.
This beacon of hope and light was inaugurated on 27th April 2022, providing free heart surgeries for children in Fiji and the South Pacific.
Through this hospital, the Sai Prema Foundation is working to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3 – Good Health and Well-Being.