Boy Pakorn Ruangsri, or Nong Por Rap, was born at Sri Prachan Hospital. When he was born, the doctor at Sri Prachan Hospital said that he might have a heart condition because his fingernails and toenails were blue. The doctor recommended that he be examined at the Children’s Hospital or the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health. When he was 3 weeks old, he was taken to the Children’s Hospital for treatment because when he cried, he would be short of breath, easily tired, and could not suck milk well.

When the doctor at the Children’s Hospital examined him, he said that he had a congenital heart disease, a type of coronary artery bypass graft, which required urgent surgery because he was starting to show cyanosis. The doctor said that he would need to have a balloon in his mouth first to prevent him from having shortness of breath and easily getting tired. He would stay at the Children’s Hospital that day. The balloon surgery would be performed in about 3 days. However, his parents could not accept this because he was their first child, so they asked to take him home to discuss with his family how to treat him. The doctor understood and allowed him to take him home and scheduled a weekly checkup.

However, after taking him home for a short while, he came back for another checkup the following week. The doctor said that they had to do a balloon for Nong as soon as possible because her symptoms were getting worse, so she had to stay in the children’s hospital that day. Nong had the balloon surgery when she was about 1 month old. After the surgery, her symptoms improved and she could breathe well and was not as short of breath as before. However, the doctor said that if Nong was to be cured of her disease, there was only one treatment method, which was surgery. The children’s hospital would send her to the Children’s Heart Surgery Foundation at Rajavithi Hospital. Her parents were still afraid and could not accept it, but they went to see Dr. Phiraphat and had an appointment for surgery on March 6, 2009. However, the surgery had to be postponed because the ICU beds were full and there was a shortage of blood for surgery. Therefore, Nong had to postpone the surgery. The surgery was rescheduled for April 20, 2009. Nong had to stay in the hospital since April 17, 2009 to prepare and have her body checked before the surgery. The child went in for surgery at 9:00 a.m. and came out at 6:00 p.m. During that time, the parents just sat and waited in front of the operating room, not daring to go anywhere. When the child came out of the operating room, the doctor said that the child was still 50:50, but when the child could leave the ICU, it would be safe because the older the child was, the higher the chance of infection than adults.

The child was in the ICU for a total of 9 days, which was a long time for the parents to wait. But when the child was able to come out to the heart surgery ward, both the parents felt very relieved. They were happy that the child would recover. And most importantly, they thought that they made the right decision to bring the child in for surgery this time. Because if the child did not have surgery, the doctor had informed them that the child would not live more than 3 months. But after the surgery, they could clearly feel the difference. The child’s condition improved. The body became red, the blood was good, and he could suckle more milk. When he cried, he did not feel tired or short of breath anymore.

They felt grateful to the doctors and nurses, especially the Pediatric Heart Surgery Foundation, who helped save the child’s life. If it were not for the foundation, The father and mother were at a loss as to how to find money to pay for the treatment and surgery, as the cost of the surgery was very high, in the hundreds of thousands. The family was middle-class. The mother sold groceries at home, while the father was a farmer, which earned just enough to support himself and the family, but not much. We would like to thank the foundation for helping the child grow up and live like other normal children.