Success Stories
Here are some of the fantastic improvements that have been achieved thanks to efforts of CHIA's generous donors & supporters and dedicated staff & volunteers.
Ngoc – born June 2000 – cerebral palsy
Ngoc’s family is poor, since her mother stays home to care for Ngoc, who has moderately severe cerebral palsy. Up untl 2004 the family lived in a palm-frond hut, but the Vietnamese government has since helped the family to build a brick home which offers much more secure shelter to the family.
LifeStart Foundation www.lifestartfoundation.org.au also assists this family by providing a wheelchair for Ngoc, paying educational sponsorship for Ngoc’s older brother, and implementing other poverty alleviation initiatives.
Investigations seem to indicate that surgery may be of little benefit to Ngoc, so our main assistance to her is by way of physiotherapy which is carried out by the family members regularly under the guidance of CHIA’s Physiotherapist Len. Since Ngoc began receiving regular physio in January, she has developed tremendously. At 7 years of age, for the first time ever, Ngoc has learned how to lift up her head, which has opened up a whole new world of possibilities and stimulation for her.
Hông - 2-yr old girl with hydrocephalus
CHIA was first introduced to Hông on 17th July 2006. Hông is the second of 2 children in a poor family. Hông’s father earns an reasonable income of USD$60/AUD$80 per month, but her mother only works a little in the family’s restaurant while also caring for Hông.
When I met Hông, at 11 months old, she weighed 6kgs, with a head circumference of 48.5cm. Her large head is due to excess cerebro- spinal fluid. She had already had surgery to implant a shunt in her head to manage her hydrocephalus. She seemed to be in very good general physical condition and well cared for, although very small for her age. Both parents were very attentive and knowledgeable about Hông. Hông’s parents said that their biggest problem was that she cried pretty much every waking moment, and the crying was usually accompanied by severe back-arching. Indications were that her shunt was working as it should, so it was not likely that her crying was not due to intra-cranial pressure.
Our aim for this family was to find out the reason for Hông’s crying and rectify the problem if possible. Usually, crying is a response to a painful stimulus i.e. the child feels pain, so they cry. Children like Hông, who may have suffered brain damage, sometimes exhibit “central crying” behaviour i.e. they are crying because of stimulation of the part of the brain that says“cry now”, sometimes in the absence of a pain stimulus.
CHIA began a series of tests to rule out as many as possible of the possible causes of pain in Hông. Each test which revealed abnormal results, resulted in a treatment. Then her condition was allowed to stabilise before re-assessing whether or not her crying was within reasonable limits. Over a six-month period, several treatments were carried out. Her health is still not normal (she occasionally develops a fever and vomits), but she is certainly much happier and healthier and has put on a little weight, which has brought a measure of calm and reassurance to the lives of her parents. CHIA’s Australian volunteer nurse has provided ongoing advice to Hông’s parents to improve the quality of her care.
CHIA has also provided a baby car seat for Hông’s use. When she is in the baby car seat, her back-arching is minimised and she is in a good position to develop her sight, her postural muscles, and her respiration and to be stimulated by her surroundings.
We continue to monitor Hông in the hope of further reducing her fevers and vomiting and hope that regular use of the baby car sear will set her on the road to development.
Hoa – baby boy born August ’06 with club-feet
Baby Hoa was born in late August 2006. Much to his family’s disappointment, Hoa’s feet were not normal. By the time Hoa and his mother Thu were discharged from hospital after birth, the staff at the hospital had said nothing at all to Thu about Hoa’s feet, so she assumed that she had a permanently disabled son.
I knew that Hoa had been born with club-feet, but assumed that since the family were not poor, that they would have been able to seek appropriate advice.
When Hoa was able one month old, Thu was very depressed and asked me to come and help her with Hoa’s feet and it was then that I realised that no appropriate advice or assistance had been obtained.
Within a very short time, I was able to ascertain that the world-wide best-practice protocol for club-feet is the Ponsetti Method, and that Danang, just 35kms north of Hoi An, is the primary centre for the application of this method in Vietnam, thanks to extensive training and guidance from Dr.Paul Wade of the“Feet For Walking” project www.feetforwalking.org/joomla/.
Literally within days, Hoa had been accepted into this wonderful program which often is carried out without surgery, relying mostly on a series of progressive castings. We are very happy to report that Hoa’s parents are over-joyed at the improvements in their son’s condition, and if they continue to follow the directions of the doctors, can rightly expect that Hoa’s gait development will be little different from his peers.
Before becoming aware of Hoa’s situation, CHIA had assumed that we would not need to offer any services to any but the poorest families. Since helping Hoa, we have realised that even those who may have the funds to provide better health care for their child, often simply don’t know how to find out how to help their child.
Tien – boy born in 2006 – emergency treatment for burns trauma
Two-year old Tien’s mother died when he was very young. He is the only child of a poor fisherman who is often at sea for extended periods, so Tien is usually cared for by his elderly grandmother. Early in January Tien was accidentally scalded when he fell into a pot of boiling soup. Tien recovered very well and was discharged after only 2 weeks in hospital and has continued recovering well at home. CHIA was glad to be able to offer to pay for Tien to receive emergency treatment for his burns.
Twin baby boys Hoang and Huy – social support to keep the family united
Twin boys Hoang & Huy were born 17/01/2007. Their parents already had 3 daughters before the twins were conceived, but they desperately wanted a son.
On the birth of twin boys, the parents were very happy, and mother and babies were all well. Unfortunately, 3 days later, the twin’s mother died unexpectedly, possibly from a pulmonary embolism. Faced with his grief, plus the prospect of trying to care for newborn twins and 3 other children, the father had reluctantly already begun the process to relinquish the twins to the orphanage, before CHIA was introduced to the family.
Once it was confirmed that the father desperately wanted to keep the family together, CHIA began working with the father to find the best way to help him to do that. After much deliberation, the twins maternal aunt eventually moved from a distant province to care for the twins. CHIA has committed to medium-term sponsorship to provide a salary to the aunt and to pay for milk formula for the twins. This sponsorship will reduce as their dependency on formula and their need for constant care reduces but will increase again to cover the costs of kindergarden and later school. The total average cost is expected to be AUD$160/ USD$120 per month to keep this family together.
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