Arnold is a young student from Haiti. He lives with his mother and older sister in a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. He has Down syndrome and goes to a school for children with special learning needs. He has many friends and enjoys helping his mother around the house.
Arnold has a cardiac condition called partial atrioventricular canal defect. Holes exist between both the upper and lower chambers of his heart. Blood leaks through these holes before first passing through his lungs to obtain oxygen, leaving him sick and short of breath. Arnold also has a condition called pulmonary hypertension, in which the blood pressures to his lungs are too high. For this reason, he needs a diagnostic catheterization to determine whether it is safe for him to have surgery.
To determine if Arnold’s condition is operable, he must undergo a diagnostic cardiac catheterization, a procedure that is not available in Haiti. During the procedure, a catheter probe will be inserted into his heart to perform the necessary measurements and tests. On August 22, he will travel to the Dominican Republic to receive the scan at our medical partner’s care center, Clinica Corominas.
Our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance, is asking for $1,500 to cover the costs of Arnold’s travel expenses, catheterization procedure, and lab work.
His mother says, “We are all praying that Arnold can have surgery so that he will be more healthy and have more energy.”
