28469: Hemantin(News)Group aids girl in need of surgery (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Group aids girl in need of surgery


Heart defect is life-threatening



By Michelle Hirsch
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

June 18, 2006



When Pamela Marcellus was an infant, doctors determined she had a heart 
condition so severe that doctors in her native Haiti wouldn't be able to treat 
her.

Her doctor took away her oxygen pump when she was 3, saying her case was 
hopeless and other children with a better chance of survival needed it more, 
said the child's mother, Joane Degan.

That day, the doctor said that Pamela's only chance of survival would be 
relocating to the United States where the proper treatment was available for 
complete atrioventricular septal defect, the heart condition she was born with, 
her mother remembers.

Pamela, now 4, has large holes between the upper and lower chambers of her 
heart and two of her heart valves are also malformed, Degan said.

The girl and her mother made it to South Florida last September with the help 
of Haitian-American sisters Ginnette and Gina Eugene and the International Kids 
Fund.

Degan contacted the Eugene sisters after seeing a television report in Haiti 
describing how they worked with the foundation and the American Embassy to help 
send another sick child to the United States for treatment.

The group is part of the Jackson Memorial Foundation that raises money to care 
for children who cannot receive necessary treatment in their home country and 
do not have the money to pay for surgery here.

Doctors at Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami are treating the child while 
fundraising efforts are under way to pay for the surgery.

Her symptoms have improved, but "without treatment, she won't make it," said 
Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz, director of Congenital Heart Surgery.

The hospital can't pay for the procedure with taxpayers' money because Pamela 
is not a U.S. citizen and doesn't have medical insurance, said IKF director 
Maria-Luisa Chea who helped launch a fundraising campaign to raise $60,000 for 
the surgery.



Michelle Hirsch can be reached at mhhirsch@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7916.


Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel