Operation Healthy Heart
Program Overview

Operation Healthy Heart (OHH) provides financial and medical assistance to Vietnamese children with serious congenital heart defects whose families cannot afford the costs of surgery and treatment. Initiated in 1994 as a result of one family seeking EMW’s help, OHH now operates in every province in Vietnam and has provided lifesaving surgeries to over 2,500 children from impoverished families.

OHH partners with Vietnamese government agencies and other non-governmental organizations to provide funding to patients and reduce the often crippling financial burden on their families. It also works in cooperation with these groups to facilitate the process of connecting heart patients with appropriate services and care.  

In addition to supporting individual children and families, OHH is working to build the capacity of the country to perform pediatric heart operations. The programs strives to increase the number and complexity of pediatric heart operations performed each year by building facilities and providing critical equipment to hospitals and long-term training to medical providers.

Key Goals 

• Increase the number of lifesaving operations performed each year for children with congenital heart defects
• Promote the early identification and diagnosis of heart conditions in children, and provide treatment to them before condition worsens
• Develop open-heart surgery “aftercare” to ensure children have the proper medications and nutrition to guarantee good long-term outcomes
• Expand the medical system’s ability to perform corrective surgery and provide good pediatric cardiovascular care
  

Key Stats