“I am hoping that I will be able to have surgery, so that I can run and play soccer like my friends,” Jean Wilson tells our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance (HCA).
Jean Wilson is a studious 16-year-old who was born with tetralogy of fallot, a heart condition that causes a hole to form between two chambers of the heart and a muscular blockage to form over one of the valves. As a result, Jean Wilson is chronically short of breath and his body is not able to absorb oxygen as easily as it could if his heart were healthy.
“Because he has lived so long with this condition, there is a chance it may no longer be repairable, but the only way to determine this is by inserting a catheter into the chambers of his heart,” HCA says. “Since this is not possible in Haiti, arrangements are being made to bring him to the Dominican Republic to perform this extremely important test in the hopes that he can have heart surgery later in the year.”
For $1500, Jean Wilson will be transported to the Dominican Republic for the catheterization procedure that will determine the operability of his congenital heart defect. If Jean Wilson is a good candidate for surgery, he will then undergo the operation so that he can regain his health and fulfill his dreams of becoming an engineer.