Donate children charity with an objective to save the children’s life

Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Foundation (PCSF)

The pediatric cardiac surgery foundation (PCSF) was founded in 1997 by Thanpuying Suprapada Kasemsan and a group of cardiac surgeon at the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease of Rajavithi Hospital. By that time, the waiting time of surgery for pediatric patients suffering from congenital heart diseases had reached 2 years

Many children died while they were waiting and some of them had serious complication such as brain infection or lung fibrosis. All of these tragic events happened because of delayed surgical correction of congenital heart diseases and could have been prevented by early surgery

The PCSF started providing ?weekend surgery? performed by volunteer cardiac
Surgeons help children in need of urgent cardiac surgery from the year-long waiting list. This first move had increased the number of pediatric cardiac surgery by approximately 100 cases in a year. Due to limited capacity of operating rooms and intensive care unit in the government hospital, the PCSF then joined with the private hospital and launched free cardiac surgery program for underprivileged children throughout Thailand to help save the children. We had saved almost 400 pediatric by the end of program. This children charity program has been so far the biggest charitable heart surgery program in the country.

In 2005, the PCSF established the pediatric cardiac surgery unit in cooperation with a semi-private hospital working with social security and government health care program. This charity organization has provided free pediatric surgery to more than 720 children from all over the country and will be expanding its capacities to treat newborns with congenital heart diseases by the end of 2008.

With an objective to help save the children, up to June 2008, the PCSF has been helping 3,218 children and the waiting time in most hospital has been reduced from 2 year to around 2-6 month period. This mismatch of need/supply of pediatric cardiac surgery in the country is around 500 procedures per year, the number of which should be continuously decreases by the increase of capacity of PCSF in both government and private sectors.

The costs of surgery to save the children vary in according to complexity and difficulties of surgery and postoperative care. The government would pay for approximately 75 percent of the whole expense and the PCSF would pay for the rest, which includes essential medications or materials or medical supplies that cannot be reimbursed from the government. In general, the PCSF has used around 900 USD/case or 280,000 USD for 328 operations in the year 2007. The PSCF has also provided indispensable medical equipments for operating room and intensive care unit, such as special ventilator for pediatric and newborn for charity.

Lastly, the PCSF has provided support for intensive care nursing training program for nurses from all over the country in order to increase the number of nurses working in pediatric cardiac intensive field. The PCSF also granted scholarship for pediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to further their training and return to work with the charity foundation to help increase the number of surgery to save the children’s life and improve care for these suffering children.