SAN ANTONIO – University Health is collaborating with two organizations to help families around the world.
The two organizations, Heart Gift and Fresh Start, both have the goal of helping children with health issues.
The groups worked together to help a little boy from Honduras brought to San Antonio to undergo life-changing heart surgery, at no expense to the family.
“It’s been a blessing that God has given me,” Ena Cardona, Angel’s Mom said via a translator.
“Angel came with a very large hole in the top chambers of his heart, which are the atrium. And so if we hadn’t closed that surgically, his life would have been shorter by a few decades,” Dr. Aaron Abarbanell, pediatric heart surgeon at University Health and UT Health San Antonio said.
The surgery was part of the Heart Gift program.
“Heart Gift is a nationwide organization. And we are, I believe, the second chapter in Texas,” Abarbanell said.
But when Angel was getting evaluated, the doctors discovered something else.
“Angel has a congenital condition that needed to be addressed by surgery,” Dr. Jessica Goetz, a pediatric urologist said.
That’s when the Fresh Start program stepped in.
“Everybody who comes in, nurses, techs, our scrub techs, the surgeons, anesthesia, everybody is donating their time. So nobody is getting paid for this and nothing is charged to the families,” Goetz said.
Angel and his mother stayed with a host family during the medical procedures.
“He’s gotten the benefit from two separate charity programs that help with surgeries for kids from underserved areas with limited resources,” Dr. Jared Foote, Angel’s host parent said.
Both nonprofits have skilled teams who search the globe for underserved children, then coordinate the surgeries with University Health medical teams.
“We have great donors here in the United States that want to fundraise for these children. And so they fundraise and they bring a parent and the child here. And then we have a host family that supports them. And then between University Health, supporting us to provide the fees for the services for free to these children, we can then give them lifesaving heart surgery,” Abarbanell said.
“That’s why, honestly a lot of the doctors decided to go into medicine is to help all of the people. And this is our way, one of the many ways,” Goetz said.
Angel will have to come back again next year for another minor surgery, but he is doing great.
“He has been doing very well. He’s been doing perfect,” Ena Cardona, said via a translator.
In 2024, Fresh Start and University Health are planning up to three more surgery weekends. They encourage anyone who thinks their child may be eligible for a Fresh Start surgery to apply here.
For more information on the two programs, read below.
HeartGift, a global nonprofit, has partnered yearly with University Health since 2009. The organization has provided more than 1,000 surgeries to children born with heart problems, the most common birth defect. Program organizers identify the children, find host families in San Antonio and organize transportation and appointments for the child and their families. Heart Gift covers a portion of the costs for the surgeries and hospital care.
Fresh Start began working with University Health’s all-volunteer medical teams this year, providing transportation, accommodations and treatment at no cost to qualifying children with physical deformities, including cleft palates, webbed toes, misshaped ears and hernias, that may not be covered by insurance. Fresh Start offers help for children from the U.S. and around the world who have no hope of otherwise receiving treatment.