Founded in 2010, HeartGift Houston

At HeartGift Houston, our mission is to provide life-saving heart surgery to children from around the world.

Mended Hearts

Anna
Lord Del
Era
Jose

Pix - Anna (Belize) - Heart Valentine's Day (1)

ANNA – AGE 8 – BELIZE

At birth, Anna was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a serious congenital heart condition comprised of four defects that affect the structure of the heart causing oxygen-poor blood to flow out of the heart and rest of the body. The young Mennonite and her mother arrived in Houston where the sweet, funny, smart young lady was completely wowed by escalators. Luckily, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital had a bunch of them, which Anna rode up and down all day to her first doctor visits. Her preoperative studies and open-heart surgery were successful thanks to cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Jorge Salazar and the team. Less than a month later, Anna returned home to reunite with her 13 siblings!

Lord Del

Lord Del a two year old from Cebu City Philippines. He has a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. When he arrived in late January 2018 his condition was quite severe and Lord Del, who loves to play, often needed to squat to obtain enough oxygen or take frequent breaks with his Mother holding him. Lord Del’s Mother and Father were told he needed surgery right away and they were unsure how they would obtain this for their son.

On February 8, 2018 Lord Del’s heart was mended via the HeartGift program. After several weeks in the hospital Lord Del returned to his host home being able to walk and play without squatting. A few weeks later he and his Mother returned to the Philippines. We have since seen videos of Lord Del running, a true transformation.

Era

Era a four year old girl from Kosovo arrived in Houston with her Father in March 2018. Era arrived with not only a hole in her heart (an Atriel Septal Defect) but also an infection in her tooth. Thanks to the generosity of our Houston community Era’s tooth was able to be removed in time for her heart to be repaired. On April 4, 2018 Era’s heart was repaired via a catheterization procedure performed by Dr. John Breinholt. When Era’s Father Hyzer heard her heart had been repaired and he could see her soon he was overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion. Hyzer and Era still keep in touch with the family they stayed with in Houston and the entire family continues to be grateful for Era’s renewed health.

Jose

Jose is six year’s old and lives in Franks Eddy Belize with his Mother, Father and big sister. While Jose was very active and appeared quite normal his heart was in great need of repair. He had a Subaortic Membrane causing blockage in his heart. Jose’s heart was repaired via open heart surgery on June 25, 2018. Jose recovered nicely and enjoyed a couple of exciting soccer games while he was in Houston.

Anna: ANNA – AGE 8 – BELIZE

At birth, Anna was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a serious congenital heart condition comprised of four defects that affect the structure of the heart causing oxygen-poor blood to flow out of the heart and rest of the body. The young Mennonite and her mother arrived in Houston where the sweet, funny, smart young lady was completely wowed by escalators. Luckily, Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital had a bunch of them, which Anna rode up and down all day to her first doctor visits. Her preoperative studies and open-heart surgery were successful thanks to cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Jorge Salazar and the team. Less than a month later, Anna returned home to reunite with her 13 siblings!
Lord Del: Lord Del

Lord Del a two year old from Cebu City Philippines. He has a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. When he arrived in late January 2018 his condition was quite severe and Lord Del, who loves to play, often needed to squat to obtain enough oxygen or take frequent breaks with his Mother holding him. Lord Del’s Mother and Father were told he needed surgery right away and they were unsure how they would obtain this for their son.

On February 8, 2018 Lord Del’s heart was mended via the HeartGift program. After several weeks in the hospital Lord Del returned to his host home being able to walk and play without squatting. A few weeks later he and his Mother returned to the Philippines. We have since seen videos of Lord Del running, a true transformation.
Era: Era

Era a four year old girl from Kosovo arrived in Houston with her Father in March 2018. Era arrived with not only a hole in her heart (an Atriel Septal Defect) but also an infection in her tooth. Thanks to the generosity of our Houston community Era’s tooth was able to be removed in time for her heart to be repaired. On April 4, 2018 Era’s heart was repaired via a catheterization procedure performed by Dr. John Breinholt. When Era’s Father Hyzer heard her heart had been repaired and he could see her soon he was overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion. Hyzer and Era still keep in touch with the family they stayed with in Houston and the entire family continues to be grateful for Era’s renewed health.
Jose: Jose

Jose is six year’s old and lives in Franks Eddy Belize with his Mother, Father and big sister. While Jose was very active and appeared quite normal his heart was in great need of repair. He had a Subaortic Membrane causing blockage in his heart. Jose’s heart was repaired via open heart surgery on June 25, 2018. Jose recovered nicely and enjoyed a couple of exciting soccer games while he was in Houston.

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Patient Updates

Juan

Juan came to Houston from Venezuela at 10 months old. At the time he was very underweight and needed to put on some pounds before having surgery. Today it is hard to imagine this is the same child. Juan has recently turned three years old and his doctor in Venezuela cannot believe he is the same child. Juan has also welcomed a little sister named Maria Alena after Alena Breinholt, his host sister while in Houston.

Sarangoo

Sarangoo or Sara for short was referred to HeartGift after passing out on vacation. It was discovered that she had an Atrial Septal Defect that needed to be repaired right away. Her heart was repaired in June 2017. Since she returned to Mongolia we have received the following update via Sara’s sister “She is a happy heathy girl attending a seventh grade. She is taking many English classes to improve her language and wants to travel around the world one day! She hopes to visit her host family and Texas again one day.”

Mary Ann

Recently in volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse, Dr. John Breinholt was able to visit with former patient Mary Ann in Uganda. Mary Ann had her heart repaired in 2015 when she was one year old. She is now four and according to Dr. Breinholt very healthy girl. While she is thriving due to her heart repair we hear she is the same spunky determined girl she was three years ago.

Siyileni

Thirteen month old Siyileni arrived in Houston from Malawi in February of 2017. At the time she was severely mal-nourished primarily due to a large whole in her heart. She cried much of the time and could barely sit up on her own or even play with any toys. Since having her heart repaired on March 1, 2017 Siyileni has continued to thrive. On a recent visit to Malawi, her host Mother Joyce was able to video her walking and dancing.

Yll

Thirteen year old Yll from Kosovo discovered he had a congenital heart defect when he passed out playing soccer with school friends. His defect was repaired via the HeartGift program in April of 2017. While in Houston Yll’s dad was hesitant to ever allow his son to play soccer again much to Yll’s sadness. Recently we received the following update from Yll’s host family “Yll is doing amazing. He plays sports regularly and brags about being #1. He runs about two hours every day and is just a beast for sports especially soccer. He does not get tired he says. All thanks to his mended heart. We speak with them almost weekly and all of us cannot wait until we see each other again.”