Haitian Hearts
By Kevin Roy

News clip from ABC-7 Chicago

June 4, 2007 - Some doctors say a diagnosis of heart disease in Haiti can be a death sentence. Treatment is not easily accessible. But, thanks to an Illinois organization, a Haitian woman is getting the treatment she desperately needs far from her homeland. She traveled all the way to Joliet.

Doctors say Marie Amazan had only months to live. Her life threatened by a case of strep throat -- untreated, it turned into rheumatic heart disease. Heart surgery is practically unheard of in Haiti. But some very generous doctors in Joliet are trying to save her.

The road to her home in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, is paved with poverty. Home video, taken during Dr. John Carroll's trip to Haiti last November, shows where Marie Amazan lives and would probably die were it not for this help.

Twenty-four-year-old Marie Amazan shares her two-room house with a dozen family members. For the past seven months, growing sicker by the day, she has been hanging on by taking the drugs Dr. Carroll and his group Haitian Hearts provided.

"She needs surgery. She won't live long without surgery," said Dr. Carroll.

Last week, Dr. Carroll returned to Haiti and drove Marie to the airport. She kissed her family goodbye.

And after arriving at O'Hare Airport in Chicago on May 29, still nursing the cough from the strep infection that started this, Marie told us she is filled with hope.

"My hope is to live," Marie said, her Creole translated by the doctor.

Doctors at Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet are trying to make that hope a reality. Marie underwent a six-hour open heart surgery tonight to replace two damaged valves in her heart. The valves -- worth about $15,000 -- were donated.

Cardiologist Brian Foy and his team donated all their services as well.

"This isn't something that a lot of hospitals would allow to occur. It is their gift to her and part of her mission as well as the other doctors involved -- all pro bono and a lot of enthusiasm for it," said Dr. Brian Foy, Provena St. Joseph cardiologist.

Based in Peoria, Haitian Hearts has helped some 125 children and young adults since 1995 by bringing them to the US for life-saving surgeries.

"There's just a huge need, no real infrastructure or technology to perform these surgeries in Haiti," said Dr. Carroll.

If all goes well, doctors will send Marie back home to Haiti in about six weeks with the hope of a full and normal life.

Haitian Hearts may be small, but its impact goes well beyond the lives they save.

Marie's surgery ended at about 7 p.m. tonight. It is high risk and doctors say the next 24 to 48 hours are critical. If she responds well over the next day or so, then the prognosis is very good.