Our family held a Children’s National Medical Center event at our home on Thursday to talk about the Zachary Blumenfeld Fund, which we set up in 2003 to say thank you to the pediatric cardiologists who saved the life of our son, Zachary. Zachary was born with significant cardiac disease and the Zach Fund is dedicated to helping Dr. Craig Sable and his Children’s cardiac teams save the lives of African children who, without the cardiac interventions, would die. Just to put in a plug for the work that the Zach Fund has supported (and shamelessly encourage you to visit his website, giving.childrensnational.org/Zachary !) here’s a sample of what the pediatric cardiologist teams have accomplished: • Saved the lives of over 500 African children from both Morocco and Uganda through cardiac surgeries, catheterizations and telemedicine assistance, including 49 brought to Children’s National for care; • Established two self-sustaining pediatric cardiac centers in both Morocco and Uganda; • Trained several hundred medical professionals to perform these procedures in country and on their own; and • Transformed how Rheumatic Heart Disease--which impacts over 30 million people--and kills over 500,000 per year--can treated and prevented in sub-Saharan Africa. RHD is caused by untreated strep throat and for under $2 a child, can be diagnosed and treated in country! Watch the two videos attached to meet some of the children -- like Victoria and Mike -- that we are saving. If any of you are so moved to learn more (and to learn about Zach’s story), visit the Zach Fund’s web page; we are, of course, looking for financial support but also other types of support (contacts, awareness opportunities and volunteers). But, wait!! There’s more! I recently left the practice of law to become Executive Director of Heart Healers International, which supports in parallel the efforts just described. Here’s that website! hearthealersinternational.org Definitely contact me or Lane if you are interested in learning more! We are very good at blabbing on about this! Oh! And share this post! :-)
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 20:18:45 +0000
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