New Life!

Are these little girls cute or what?! Their names are Naomi Yuani (with her Dad) and Rose Andrew. They are both 4 years old and have heart defects.

Naomi has two holes in the septum that divides the right side of the heart from the left. One hole is at the level of the atria (the upper chambers) and the other is at the level of the ventricles (the lower chambers).

Rose has a Patent Ductus Arteriosus. When a baby is in mom's belly the baby isn't breathing in order to get oxygen. Instead the oxygen is coming from mom's blood supply. Because of this not all the baby's blood needs to go to the lungs and so there is a little "by-pass" called the ductus arteriosus that shunts blood directly into the aorta. Once the baby is born and takes those first breaths everything changes! Baby is now using those little lungs to get oxygen and all the blood needs to get to the lungs. That "by-pass" road normally closes shortly after baby is born. Rose's did not. She has a Patent, or open, Ductus Arteriosus.

A third child, Able Isaac, (not pictured) has a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. This defect is a little more complicated. As the name eludes to, it has four components to it.

All three of these children are now in Pt. Moresby for heart surgery! Once a year an Australian team of heart surgeons come to PNG. They stay for 10 days or so and perform heart surgery for free. There is a screening process held across the country to determine which of the children who have heart defects are good surgical candidates. Five of the Nazarene Hospital patients referred for the initial screening made the list for the final screening which took place early this week. Three of those five were referred on; Rose, Naomi and Able.

Please pray for them, their families, their surgeons and the rest of the heart team that will be caring for these little ones! Without this special gift of surgery, these kids would develop heart failure at a young age.

Thank you, God, for providing new life for Rose, Naomi and Able!!