Life-saving treatment for baby Lucy

A ten-month-old baby girl suffering from a life threatening heart condition and forced from her home by a violent Kenyan mob, has been given new hope in her battle for life by Plan.

Plan staff rescued Lucy from a refugee camp in Uganda and flew her to India where she underwent a complicated operation to insert a heart valve. The valve was itself flown in by Plan from Brazil.

Lucy's odds of survival had plummeted after her family's home was torched and their small business destroyed by rioters in the wake of last year's disputed Kenyan election. Forced to flee with her family, she missed out on medical attention for her condition and contracted pneumonia after sleeping rough in the cold on the long walk to safety in Uganda.

Like many of the 12,000 refugees who crossed the border, Lucy's family arrived in Uganda with only the few possessions they could carry by hand. Having witnessed the violence in Kenya, they were already traumatised with the added burden of uncertainty surrounding their sick daughter.

Plan first came across Lucy in a Ugandan refugee camp, where she was brought into the health centre run by the children's organisation. The centre treated her for pneumonia and arranged a hospital appointment at the Uganda Heart Hospital.

The diagnosis revealed Lucy to be suffering from pulmonary atresia, or a blockage of the heart's right ventricle - an extremely rare condition. Without treatment Lucy would have had little chance of survival.

Speaking from Kampala, Plan's Uganda Country Director, Donal Keane explained: "Doctors in Uganda and Kenya were unable to help Lucy due to the seriousness of her condition. The cardiac surgeon at Mulago hospital recommended that Lucy be transferred to a special pediatric cardiac unit in Chennai, India, where doctors agreed to perform the necessary surgery."

As the Kenyan violence continued, Lucy's health worsened. Her best chance of survival was urgent surgery at the specialist unit. Plan contacted the Madras Mission Hospital to arrange an immediate appointment and began arranging entry visas and flights for the family. By early March, Lucy was well enough for the 14 hour flight from Uganda to India.

However, on arriving in India, she suffered yet another setback. The doctors discovered the infant had a collapsed heart. Despair set in, as they explained that India only stored adult heart valves. Once more, Plan stepped in, arranging for a baby heart valve to be flown in from Brazil.

On March 26, bleary eyed but stable, baby Lucy awoke from her six hour operation to be greeted by her anxious, and overwhelmed 20-year-old mother. Lucy's heart now beats regularly.
 
Her mother said: "It is beyond my wildest expectation that my daughter could live and that we can return someday to Kenya as a family."

Lucy's father said, "It is a miracle that my child has the opportunity to live!"