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Khwar Nyo Thin - 6 years old

Hole in the Heart

When Khwar Nyo Thin was born, she weighed only 1.4kg and her twin sister weighed 2.5kg. Her heartbroken mother did not think that Khwar Nyo Thin would survive even this long. Every time she undergoes any surgery, her mother fears her child will die. Khwar Nyo Thin arrived at Mae Tao Clinic at the age of 2 years. She was very tiny and couldn’t walk at all, but was very bright and talked a lot. Unfortunately she is suffering with congenital heart disease and was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOT). Infants and children with TOF do not grow well, tire easily and die prematurely if the defects are not corrected.

She underwent a surgical procedure called a Blalock-Taussig shunt on 6/17/04. This surgery however is only a temporarily relief from major symptoms, allowing her to grow. Khwar Nyo Thin could not have a total correction at the time because her body was too weak and to small to under go major surgery. For a child to have a major cardiac surgery, the surgeon would like them to weigh at least 10 kg or more.
Khwar Nyo Thin family situation is like most patients that come from Burma. It is very difficult to make end meet anyway, it is even harder with a very sick child.  Khwar Nyo Thin’s father is a carpenter in Myawaddy. He regards himself lucky if he gets 15 days work out of every month. “If I can earn 3,500 baths ($110) a month and my family member is not sick, we can live on that”. Khwar Nyo Thin’s illness puts a huge financial strain on the family.

Her mother is a school teacher, but cannot get a permanent job because of her child’s health, however she tries to get private tutoring jobs to make ends meet. This is not easy. She would often travel with her child to Taung Goo Township (700km from Myawaddy) to seek work. Khwar Nyo Thin’s twin sister has to stay in Taung Goo with her grandparents for education.

Now work is drying up for Khwar Nyo Thin’s mother and she has moved back to Myawaddy to be with her husband and be close to Mae Tao Clinic. Khwar Nyo Thin’s symptoms are getting worse, but it is close to her surgery date of June 14th 2007, when she will have total corrective heart surgery. Her family hopes that funding will come in time for Khwat Nyo Thin’s surgery. Without surgery, she will not survive. 
Rotary Fund have kindly agreed to sponsor Kywar Nyo Thin’s surgery

Post-operation interview:

Hole in the heart

Khwar Nyo Thin had her second operation in Chiang Mai and it was a success. She was diagnosed with a hole in her heart, which means that her oxygenated blood can’t be pumped to the rest of her body. It can make her very tired, turn blue with just a little exercise and in the future she wouldn’t be able to attend school or play with other children.  If a condition like this isn’t treated, the patient can eventually die.

Her father is very happy seeing his daughter active and lively again: ‘She really likes it that she can finally play with the other kids, because before she had to stay in the house or watch the other children play. Until now she also didn't like to eat at all and now she's eating all the time, growing and getting stronger! In the future, she wants to become a doctor. Right now, she really likes helping her mother in the household: “I’m getting water for mother and help her with making dinner en serving it to our family”.

Before the surgeries, the father couldn’t work much and he and his wife were worried a lot, both about their child and, because he couldn’t work much, they had financial problems as well. Now he can go to work again and he can spend time on somebody else too: His wife gave birth to a healthy boy.