Mrs N is a young lady with a very sick heart.  She was born with a hole between two chambers of her heart.  Since this was not fixed in childhood she now has severe damage both to her heart and the blood vessels feeding the lung.  Her blood has low oxygen levels which both increase the work of the already damaged heart as well as cause her to be tired all of the time.  We are renting her an oxygen tank and filling it monthly. 
Total cost = $520/year









Mrs E. is a 44 year old female with a long history of stomach pains.  She has had 3 separate surgeries to remove her gallbladder and residual stones.  She now has a large gallstone that is infected.  She was on weekly courses of antibiotics when we met her and quite sick.  There are doctors in Saigon who are willing to attempt to get this stone and all infected material out.
Total cost = 20 million dong = $1250

Mr M had rheumatic fever as a child and suffered heart damage because of it.  One of his valves is severly damaged and needs repair.  He has known about this for some time but the surgery was too expensive.  The damage has progressed and he now suffers daily.  We will send him to Da Nang for a life-saving valve repair. 
Total cost = 40 million dong = $1200

Mr T is a young boy with cerebral palsy.  We met him as he was passing by our health coordinator's house on the way into town.  He is on summer holiday from school and taking a boat over to hoi an, wheeling himself 5 km into town and selling lottery tickets.  He is using an old beat up wheelchair given to him by a disabled man in town.  We have enrolled him in classes here in town.  We want to buy him a new wheelchair and get surgery to improve the use of his right hand. 
Total cost for push-pull wheelchair = $300 
Total cost for surgery = $800

We are working in 14 health clinics in the neighboring district of Duy Xuyen.  Though there is a high prevalence of diabetes, it is untreated in these clinics.  This untreated diabetes directly increases the mortality from heart disease in Viet Nam.  We are teaching the health providers how to look for and manage diabetes.  We want to provide each of the 14 clinics with a glucose monitor and supplies for one year. 
Total cost for one clinic (monitor, supplies) = $250