«Healthy heart»: how to receive aid?

Vlad is 12 years old now. For the last four years he suffered from headaches, the child often fainted. Because of poor health, the boy missed classes at school, becoming increasingly introverted. Parents were in despair.

"At some point he became so withdrawn that he stopped talking with us. It was difficult to raise him. We could not even ask how he was doing, how was the day. He simply did not answer the questions", says Ulyana, Vlad's mother.

Doctors observed the child for several years — medications were prescribed in large quantities. They made different diagnoses, from migraine to epilepsy. But the effect was short-term, and the headaches returned."

“I used to worry, and my head started to hurt. I did not know what was causing this. We often went to hospitals and did not know who to believe", - Vlad recalls.

The cause of poor health was revealed by cardiologists: a congenital heart condition. It turned out that the headaches are directly related to the defect of the interatrial septum. Cardiac surgeons recommended a , but the parents did not have money to perform it.

"We applied to a lot of foundations absolutely in vain", says Vlad's mother. "And only the Rinat Akhmetov Center gave us hope, which it later fulfilled. We are very grateful. This cannot be expressed in words".

At the end of April Vlad underwent surgery by the cardiac surgeons of the Moscow Heart Institute. The surgery was performed by the endovascular method without incision of the thorax. This allows a patient to recover very quickly and forget about his diagnosis forever.

A few days after the operation, Vlad returned home to Mariupol. He returned with a healthy heart. The boy is sure that now his life will necessarily change for the better and boldly makes plans for the future.

Thanks to the "Healthy Heart" project, which is operating  for the second year, the Center has provided assistance in conducting surgery for 40 children with a "heart condition"

How to receive aid on the "Healthy Heart" project

The project is aimed at saving children with a heart condition. The Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center assists in conducting corrective surgery to cure the defect. Aid can be received by the children from 0 to 18 years old living in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions from families belonging to the following socially unprotected categories:

• families raising orphans, foster children;
• family-type orphanages; large families with three or more children aged under 18;
• single parents or widows/widowers with children aged under 18;
• families in difficult life situations (families with more than one seriously ill person, for example, a mother with oncology and a child with cerebral palsy, or two disabled persons of group I, etc.);
• families with a monthly total income under UAH 10,000 (confirmed by a tax agency certificate).

In order to receive aid, you need to call the Humanitarian Center hotline 0800-509-001 and leave a request.