Congenital Heart Disease is one of the major illness among the children. The incidence is estimated about 8 to 10 out of 1000 delivery. Thus, Kelantan for instance, has almost 37,000 delivery every year and about 350 to 400 of them suffering from congenital heart disease. Some of them requiring intervention including surgery.

Unfortunately, paediatric cardiothoracic service is not available in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia except for a few simple cases which can be done by our adult cardiothoracic surgeon. As a result, the patients need to be referred to other centres in the West Coast such as Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) or Serdang Hospital in Klang Valley.

USM had provided the service of paediatric cardiothoracic surgery from July 2013 to February 2015. We were very fortunate to have Dr Antonio Corno who had set-up the services and the first surgery was performed in September 2013. Within that short period (17 months) we had conducted 120 cases of surgery involving congenital heart disease patients. Unfortunately Dr Antonio had to leave USM in February 2015.

However, with the help of Dr Antonio, he managed to initiate a collaboration with Healing Little Hearts Foundation which base in United Kingdom to provide paediatric cardiothoracic services as a charity programme. The first visit was successfully conducted in September 2015 for 5 days (from 6th to 10th September). During this visit, 9 congenital heart disease patients had successfully underwent cardiac operation. Following that we have planned to have a long term collaboration between USM and Little Heart Foundation so that a more regular visit can be arranged. The next visit will be on 13th to 17th March 2016.

Healing Little Hearts Foundation
This foundation (http://www.healinglittlehearts.org.uk) has been founded by Dr Sanjiv Nichani, a surgeon from Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK for the past 9 years. Most of the missions previously were in India. They are volunteers, and financially supported by the donations from the public. They have a number of specialists and support staffs from all over the UK who volunteer to contribute their expertise for their missions. Among them are paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, paediatric cardiologist, paediatric intensivist, staff nurses and cardiac perfusionist.

USM – Healing Little Hearts Foundation Charity Programme in Collabaration with PADUCare (Hole in the Heart Fund)

先天性心脏病是儿童之中的重大疾病之一。这疾病在每1000个儿童中的发病率估计约为8至10个。因此，以吉兰丹州为例，每年有近37000分娩，其中约350至400孩子患上先天性心脏疾病。这当中的一些儿童需要干预，包括手术治疗。

不幸的是，小儿心胸服务在马来西亚半岛东海岸是不存在的，除了几个简单的情况下，可以通过我们的成人心胸外科医生来完成。其结果是，病人需要被转介到西海岸其他中心， 如国家心脏研究所 (Institut Jantung Negara) 或位于Klang Valley 的Serdang Hospital。

USM从2013年7月至2015年2月提供了小儿心胸外科的服务。我们很幸运有Dr Antonio Corno帮忙建立的服务，在2013年九月进行了第一次手术。在那短暂期间（17个月）我们已经进行了120次手术，其中也涉及了先天性心脏疾病患者。遗憾的是，Dr Antonio不得不在2015年2月离开USM。

然而，有着Dr Antonio的帮助下，他成功地发起与基地在英国的Healing Little Hearts  Foundation的 合作，为小儿心胸服务作为一个慈善计划。他们成功地于2015年9月第一次进行了5天的访问（从6日至10日） 。在这次访问中， 9名先天性心脏疾病的患者成功地进行了心脏手术。接着，我们计划有着USM和小心脏基金会之间的长期合作，使更经常的访问可以被安排。接下来的访问将是在2016年3月13日至17日。

Healing Little Hearts Foundation (http://www.healinglittlehearts.org.uk)

该基金会是由Dr Sanjiv Nichani Nichani创立的。Dr Sanjiv Nichani Nichani在过去的9年于莱斯特，英国的格伦菲尔德医院担任外科医生。这基金会以前大部分的任务都在印度。成员们都是志愿者，经济上以来自公众的捐款资助支撑着。他们有许多来自英国各地，自愿贡献自己的专业知识及服务的专家与支援员工。这其中包括小儿心胸外科医生，儿科心脏病专家，儿科重症监护员，护理人员和心脏灌注师。