Giving children a healthy heart

This project was created as part of Vodafone Ukraine's charity program “A Good Deed as a Gift”. Every year in Ukraine, about 3,500 children are born with congenital heart disease. For many of them, the only chance for life is modern endovascular surgery, which allows them to eliminate the defect without incisions, scars and long recovery.

Such surgeries are performed with the help of special heart implants - occluders, which are placed in the vessels through a tiny puncture in the thigh. This is a minimally invasive intervention that allows the child to return home the next day.

But to save every child, an implant is needed, which is not covered by state funding. And this is where a charity initiative from Vodafone Ukraine helps. 

The goal of the project is to raise funds for the purchase of heart implants and save the lives of 5 children with congenital heart disease.

Tatiana Ropchan, 24.11.2008, Chernivtsi region.Tatiana is 16 years old. She is active, athletic, practises martial arts and has received awards in hand-to-hand combat. Recently, during a medical examination, the girl was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect - a defect in the atrial septum. Doctors insist on surgery with the installation of an occluder, but the family is unable to pay for the cost of the implant on their own. Tatyana is studying at college, dreams of the future and wants to be healthy. Today, her heart needs our support.

Blaha Solomiya, 23.02.2020, born in Vinnytsia region. At the age of three months, during a routine ultrasound, the girl was diagnosed with an open oval hole in her heart. For five years, the family regularly underwent examinations, hoping for self-closure, but this did not happen. During the examination at the Amosov Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, doctors decided that endovascular closure of the defect with an occluder was necessary. The cost of the implant was unaffordable for the family: my mother works as a teacher and my father serves in a government agency.

Nachuichenko Oleksandr, born on 02.08.2011, Odesa region. 13-year-old Oleksandr was diagnosed with a heart defect - an open arterial duct and mitral valve prolapse. This defect did not make itself felt for a long time. But lately, the boy has been complaining of heart pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Due to the impaired blood supply, the body does not receive enough oxygen. It is difficult for Oleksandr to run, play sports, and live a normal life. The only chance to avoid serious complications is surgery to install an occluder. It should be done as soon as possible to stop the development of the disease.