Friends and family rally around heart patient returned home

Seang Yean was greeted at her small home in Okroch, Kampong Thom, Tuesday by a crowd of family and church members hoping to witness firsthand the amazing recovery they helped make possible by financing her trip to Phnom Penh for heart surgery.

Yean, a 47-year-old mother of two, was first introduced to CHAD in February, when she was suffering from a serious but still unidentified disease. Several doctor's consultations later, it was revealed that she needed immediate surgery to repair a defective heart valve.

The members of Okroch Methodist Church would hear nothing of Yean's initial hopelessness — how could she pay for such an expensive surgery? — and they immediately started raising money. In a week, this poverty-stricken congregation had scraped together $25.

It wasn't nearly enough to finance a surgery, but church members consulted CHAD, which was able to find free treatment through Phnom Penh's Jeremiah Hope Clinic, and the church's contribution was enough to get Yean and her blood donors to and from the hospital.

Tuesday's reunion with the church family that refused to give up on her was a sweet one, said Yean, whose condition has vastly improved since her March 5 surgery. She is slowly regaining her breath and energy and says she thanks God for giving her the support and courage she needed to make it through.

Read more of Yean's story here. Donate to CHAD's Health Program here.

Heart patient on the mend after surgery

Seang Yean, the heart patient we told you about last month, is in the hospital recovering from what doctors are calling a successful operation on a defective valve in her heart.

CHAD staff member Sok Sophal said Yean was in good spirits — but quite sore — during a visit at Jeremiah Hope Clinic in Phnom Penh last week.

The surgery took place March 5 after several weeks of delay, and Yean has been recuperating at the hospital ever since. The first few days after the operation were a bit rocky, with Yean staying in the emergency portion of the clinic under close observation by hospital staff, but her status was upgraded late last week and doctors expect she will be discharged early next week.

Yean was introduced to CHAD by members of her church in Okroch Village, Kampong Thom, last month after she had been suffering from an unknown but debilitating medical condition for almost a year. It was then, after she was referred to a specialist in Phnom Penh, that Yean discovered it was a heart condition that had been keeping her in bed and out of the rice fields. Moreover, she learned she needed surgery right away.

Although CHAD does not pay for operations, staff were able to connect Yean with organizations that could, and the procedure was performed free of charge.

Read all of Yean's story here.

Donate to CHAD's health program here.

Check out Jeremiah Hope Clinic on Facebook.