Compassion is a cornerstone of healthcare. Surgeons in Thailand are demonstrating that quality in abundance by providing free life-saving surgeries to 37 babies from the neighboring Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic suffering from congenital heart defects that would otherwise cut short their time on earth.

The Royal Thai Embassy in Vientiane, the Thai Red Cross Society, Chulalongkorn Hospital, the Thai Red Cross Society, the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Foundation (PCSF) and Child's Dream Foundation together with Ministry of Health of Lao PDR and Mahosot Hospital have teamed up under the "Thai - Lao Save the Children’s Blue Heart" project to provide the children with desperately needed care.

The medical teams from both countries jointly conducted screenings on 92 pediatric heart patients from across Lao PDR. The screening found 37 pediatric heart patients who required surgery, whom will be referred to Thailand for surgeries free of charge.

The United Nations has categorized Laos as a Least Developed Country. Landlocked and isolated for decades in the aftermath of the Indochina wars of the last century, it has little in the way of up-to-date medical facilities and equipment.

By contrast, the World Health Organization has praised Thailand’s public health system as a model for developing countries. Its private healthcare facilities are on par with many advanced nations. Most large hospitals have received accreditation from Joint Commission International, or JCI, the global standard for quality care and services.

The first baby in need of surgery was treated in November and has already returned to Laos. The others are being transported to Thailand on staggered arrivals, with the most urgent cases prioritized.

The Thai public shares that compassion. When the second baby requiring surgery was in an extremely delicate condition in need of a transfer to a more advanced facility in Bangkok, Chulalongkorn Hospital employed social media to call upon motorists along the northeastern-bound Mittraphap Highway to make way for the ambulance carrying the baby. Thai motorists cooperated and cleared the roads in collective effort ensured the timely execution of the surgery.

Nong Khai Hospital in Nakhon Phanom province near Laos has been assigned to screen all 37 patients under the program and provide treatment as needed or refer the infants to other hospitals in Thailand that are more fully equipped.

The hospital director said that the rest of the patients will receive their surgeries in Thailand within this year.

Photo courtesy of https://vientiane.thaiembassy.org/