Heartbroken baby with congenital heart disease abandoned by father

(Baonghean.vn) - Just 3 months old, Tu Thi Thao Linh (born in 2012) had a congenital heart disease, but when her mother informed her father to take her to the hospital for treatment, he coldly refused. Meanwhile, her brother Tu Van Nam (born in 2009) had glomerulonephritis and was being treated.

Ms. Pham Thi Dieu (born in 1976) in Hamlet 2A, Quynh Chau Commune (Quynh Luu) is the eldest of four children. Because her family was so poor, she had to drop out of school after 6th grade to help her parents raise her younger siblings.

In 2006, following her friends, she went to an industrial park in Ho Chi Minh City to work as a wood interior decorator. There, she fell in love and married a man from Ben Tre, whose family was also poor and had only two siblings. At the end of 2009, Ms. Dieu returned to her mother's hometown to ask her family for help in the process of giving birth to her first child.

Pham Thi Dieu and her three children in front of the house built by her maternal relatives and superiors. Photo: Dam Phuong

When Tu Van Nam’s son was strong, she continued to go to the South to work as a factory worker. The couple rented a small room, and their life was still poor and frugal, but warm. In August 2012, Ms. Dieu returned to her hometown for the second time to give birth to a daughter and named her Tu Thi Thao Linh.

However, when Linh was only 3 months old, she showed signs of difficulty breathing. She took her child to the Children's Hospital for examination and discovered that she had a congenital heart disease and was referred to the Central Hospital for treatment. Ms. Dieu quickly called her husband in Ho Chi Minh City to inform him, hoping that he would come to take her to Hanoi for treatment. She was stunned when she heard her husband's cold reply: The three of you hold each other to live, don't come back home here anymore, no one welcomes sick children...

Ms. Dieu was in pain and felt sorry for her child. After many phone calls, hoping that her husband would reconsider and take her child to the hospital for treatment. All efforts were in vain. She felt sorry for her fate and was sad because she did not understand why her husband had changed when her child was seriously ill. Her situation was even more difficult when she was treating her daughter's heart disease in Hanoi while her son Tu Van Nam at home had glomerulonephritis.

Tu Van Nam (blue shirt) in addition to glomerulonephritis also has brain atrophy. Photo: Dam Phuong

At the same time, when both her children were seriously ill, she decided to stay in her hometown and depend on her maternal grandparents. She had no house, so her parents let her stay in an old, dilapidated house. Every time it rained, she had to go to her younger brother's house for shelter.

Faced with the pitiful situation of the mother and her children, the district Fatherland Front and the commune government supported them with 20 million VND, along with the family, the village, people who contributed labor, people who gave bags of cement, some bricks, trucks of dirt... so in 2014, a small house was built on the old land of the parents, enough space for the mother and her children to live.

According to the medical record, Thao Linh’s heart rotates to the left, visceral inversion, atrioventricular discordance, aortic valve atrophy… so her health is very weak, her whole body and face are always purple. She cannot eat rice, she mainly drinks milk and a little porridge. The hospital’s treatment regimen requires regular check-ups in Hanoi every 3 months, then blood must be withdrawn and blood thinners must be given to prevent blood clotting. Every month, in addition to supplements, she must continuously take anticoagulants according to the hospital’s prescription, but the medicine costs 2 million VND per month.

Nam's glomerulonephritis was taken to many hospitals for treatment by Ms. Dieu. According to the prescription and treatment regimen of Bach Mai Hospital, Nam's glomerulonephritis was not stable and another disease arose. Recently, after examination, the hospital concluded that Nam was suffering from brain atrophy.

Ms. Dieu has no stable job and has to work for hire. She does whatever job anyone calls her to earn money for her child's medicine. She earns 100,000-120,000 VND a day from cutting grass, carrying heavy loads, and making incense. Linh received 675,000 VND for children with severe disabilities, and Ms. Dieu received 270,000 VND. She has not paid back a single VND of the 50 million VND loan for poor households to build a house and take her child to the hospital.

Because of pain and fatigue, Linh often cries. Photo: Dam Phuong

Every day, she had to leave Linh with her grandmother, who was over 75 years old, to go to work. Nam had been in first grade for two years but still could not read or write well. In addition, the signs of brain disease were getting worse. Recently, he strangled his younger sister. Thanks to the neighbors who discovered and provided emergency care, Linh would not have survived. The cost of medicine alone was too much to bear for two sick children. The food for the three of them was nothing but vegetables from the garden. Without nutritious food, Linh became weaker and weaker.

Mr. Nguyen Binh Khang - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Chau Commune said: Ms. Pham Thi Dieu is currently in a deadlock because she has no money to treat her daughter's heart disease and her son's glomerulonephritis and brain atrophy. To have a large sum of money, she is in dire need of the hearts of kind-hearted readers near and far.

Ha Linh