Two boys who have received life-saving cardiac procedures and two girls who are hoping to get the same gift celebrated an early Halloween at St. Francis Hospital to commemorate Gift of Life’s 40th Anniversary.
The Great Neck-based humanitarian organization has partnered with the hospital for four decades in providing life-saving cardiac procedures to more than 250 children from 29 countries. Its mission drew worldwide attention in 1983 when First Lady Nancy Reagan brought two children from Korea for heart surgery at St. Francis.
“It has been my great pleasure to work with the Gift of Life for so many years,” say Sean Levchuck, MD, Chairman of Pediatric Cardiology at St. Francis. Dr. Levchuck has donated his services to save hundreds of children through the hospital’s partnership with the program and says he looks forward to it celebrating another 40 years.
The latest recipients are Ramazan Urusov, a four-year-old boy from Russia, who was born with an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) and now looks forward to playing soccer. Oleg Karmanov, a nine-year-old boy from Russia, was born with ASD and had a pacemaker implanted as a baby to deal with an electrical blockage in his heart.
Using a minimally invasive, catheter-based device, Dr. Levchuck was able to repair the holes in both boys’ hearts. He will be performing a more complex procedure next month to repair two separate holes in 16-year-old Maria Parkhomenko’s heart. The Russian teen was unable to play without getting out of breath as child and looks forward to finally being able to break dance.
The stories have been so inspiring that Dr. Levchuck’s son, Connor, and the son of a nurse at St. Francis, Matt Martino, helped to raise $5,000 with their classmates at St. Anthony’s High School to bring four-year-old Uerda Zena from Kosovo to the United States. She’ll also be having a procedure to correct an ASD next month.
“We couldn’t have made such a big impact on all of these children’s lives without our strong partnership with St. Francis,” says Robbie Donno, founder of the Gift of Life.
“What began with one child from Uganda has grown into a global effort to help children from around the world. We look forward to continuing our life-saving mission for many more years to come.”
