175 Asian Children Given a New Lease on Life: Incheon City Marks 20 Years of Treating Children with Heart Disease

Incheon City announced that a total of 175 children have received surgeries and treatments through its medical support program conducted in cooperation with local medical institutions and private organizations for Asian partner countries.

The city stated that starting with 10 Vietnamese children with heart disease who received free surgeries at Gil Medical Center in 2007, 175 children from Cambodia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia have received free surgeries and treatments at Incheon Gil Medical Center and Inha University Hospital to date.

A significant number of the invited patients suffer from congenital heart diseases. While they can recover their health with timely surgery, most of them have been unable to receive proper treatment due to poor local medical environments, long surgical wait times, and economic difficulties.

Over the past 20 years, the number of patients examined by South Korean medical staff during visits to Asian partner regions has reached approximately 6,800.

Incheon City covers the airfares and domestic transportation costs for the children and their guardians, as well as the expenses for the medical staff's local outreach clinics, while the medical institutions shoulder the costs for surgery, treatment, and hospitalization.

Private organizations and local partner agencies provide close support throughout the entire process, from identifying candidates to their entry and departure.

Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae said, "Based on Incheon's world-class medical capabilities and public-private cooperation system, we will continue our support for medically vulnerable groups in the Asian region," adding, "We will fulfill our responsibility as an international city that practices the value of sharing beyond borders."

(Photo: Provided by Incheon City, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.