Heartbreaking story of a child with congenital heart disease abandoned by his father.

(Baonghean.vn) - At just 3 months old, Tu Thi Thao Linh (born in 2012) was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. When her mother informed her father so he could take her to the hospital for treatment, he coldly refused. Meanwhile, her older brother, Tu Van Nam (born in 2009), is undergoing treatment for glomerulonephritis.

Ms. Pham Thi Dieu (born in 1976) from Hamlet 2A, Quynh Chau Commune (Quynh Luu District) is the eldest of four sisters in her family. Due to extreme poverty, she had to drop out of school after only completing the 6th grade to help her parents raise her younger siblings.

In 2006, following the advice of friends, she went to work as a wood interior decoration worker in an industrial zone in Ho Chi Minh City. There, she fell in love and married a man from Ben Tre, whose family was also poor and consisted only of two brothers. At the end of 2009, Ms. Dieu returned to her maternal hometown to seek family support during the birth of her first child.

Ms. Pham Thi Dieu and her two children stand in front of their new home, built with the joint efforts of local authorities and her maternal relatives. Photo: Dam Phuong

When her son, Tu Van Nam, was old enough, she went back to the South to work as a factory worker. The couple rented a small room; their life was poor and simple, but warm and loving. In August 2012, Ms. Dieu returned to her hometown for the second time to give birth to a daughter, whom she named Tu Thi Thao Linh.

However, at just three months old, Linh showed signs of difficulty breathing. Her mother took her to the Children's Hospital for examination, where it was discovered she had a congenital heart defect and was referred to a central hospital for treatment. Ms. Điều quickly called her husband in Ho Chi Minh City, hoping he would come and help take their daughter to Hanoi for treatment. She was devastated when her husband coldly replied: "You three should just stick together and live. Don't come back home here anymore; no one will welcome sick children…"

Ms. Điều was heartbroken and worried about her child. After many phone calls hoping her husband would change his mind and take their child to the hospital for treatment, all her efforts were in vain. She felt resentful and sad, unable to understand why her husband had changed his mind while their child was suffering from a serious illness… Her situation became even more difficult when, while her daughter was receiving treatment for a heart condition in Hanoi, her son, Từ Văn Nam, developed glomerulonephritis at home.

Tu Van Nam (in the blue shirt) suffers from both glomerulonephritis and brain atrophy. Photo: Dam Phuong

With both her children suffering from serious illnesses at the same time, she decided to stay in her hometown and rely on her maternal relatives. Having no home of her own, she was allowed to stay in her parents' old, dilapidated house, and had to seek refuge at her younger brother's house whenever it rained or was windy.

Given the mother and children's pitiful circumstances, the District Fatherland Front and the commune government provided financial assistance of 20 million VND. Along with family, neighbors, and contributions of labor, cement, bricks, and soil, a small house was built in 2014 on the parents' old land, providing enough space for the three of them to live.

According to her medical records, Thao Linh's heart is rotated to the left, with situs inversus (reversed internal organs), atrioventricular mismatch, and aortic valve stenosis... therefore, her health is very weak, and her whole body and face are always bluish. She cannot eat rice, mainly drinking milk and a little porridge. The hospital's treatment plan involves a routine check-up in Hanoi every three months, during which blood is drawn and transfused to thin the blood and prevent clotting. Every month, in addition to nutritional supplements, she has to continuously take anticoagulant medication as prescribed by the hospital, but the cost of this medication is 2 million dong per month.

Nam's glomerulonephritis was treated at several hospitals by his mother, Ms. Điều. According to the prescription and treatment plan from Bạch Mai Hospital, Nam's glomerulonephritis remained unstable and another illness developed. Recently, after examination, the hospital concluded that he is suffering from brain atrophy.

Ms. Điều doesn't have a stable job and has to work odd jobs to earn money for her child's medication. She earns between 100,000 and 120,000 VND a day cutting grass, carrying heavy loads, and making incense. Linh received 675,000 VND for children with severe disabilities, and Ms. Điều received 270,000 VND. She hasn't repaid a single penny of the 50 million VND loan intended for poor households to build a house and take her child to the hospital.

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

Every day, she has to leave her granddaughter Linh with her 75-year-old grandmother while she goes to work. Her grandson Nam, after two years in first grade, still doesn't know how to read or write fluently. Moreover, his brain disease is worsening; recently, he strangled his younger sister. Thanks to neighbors who discovered him and intervened in time, Linh's life would have been difficult to save. Raising two sick children, the cost of medicine alone is overwhelming, and the only food for the three of them is vegetables from their garden. Without nutritious food, Linh is getting 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 desperate situation because she lacks the money to treat her daughter's heart condition and her son's glomerulonephritis and brain atrophy. To raise the large sum of money needed, she urgently needs the generosity of kind-hearted readers near and far.

Ha Linh