Joan's story

This is the story of Mending Kids patient 7-year-old Joan from Asunge village in Uganda.  Joan was diagnosed with heart disease at the Uganda Heart Institute but they were not equipped to handle her case. Her heart condition required urgent surgery to repair.

Joan's mother works in the field just to make ends meet. Her father is blind so Mom is trying to support Joan and her two siblings by doing field work. She has also had to borrow from relatives just to keep Joan stabilized.

Joan's Mom reached out to The Action For Disadvantaged People (ACDIPE) in Uganda who then reached out to our Mending Kids Individual Surgical Care team for help.

In September, Joan and her mother, Harriet flew to Bangalore, India to the Narayana Hrudayalaya Health Hospital and Joan was operated on by Dr. Sateesh.

Mending Kids is happy to report that Joan's open-heart surgery was a success and on October 23, she was flown home to Uganda.