"Ours is perhaps the first generation in history which has the knowledge and resources to achieve a great improvement in the health of all mankind. Yet hundreds of millions live out lives darkened by malnutrition and infectious disease.  In developing and industrialized countries, good health for all is far from a reality.   But this need not be so  There is a ground swell worldwide to bring about social changes that will raise dramatically the level of health for all."  World Health Organization, Annual Report, 198?

Faith Nyambura was a child born with the odds stacked against her.  She was born poor in a developing country, daughter of a single parent who made a meager living selling vegetables in an open air market.  To complicate matters further, she had Tetralogy of Fallot.  This serious congenital heart defect severely limits the body's ability to oxygenate blood, thus giving its victims a bluish tint and occasionally red, blood-shot eyes.  She was listless and prone to lung infections, failing in school, and failing to thrive.  Her mother, Annah, was the personification of tenacity and strength.  She had tried everything to help her child live - appealing to local hospitals, the media, even approaching members of the Kenyan Parliament - to no avail. It had become clear that the solution to Faith's problem lay outside the borders of Kenya.  Faith's story, statistically speaking, should have ended there.  Mortality rates from Africa show that thousands of children like Faith simply die waiting for an operation that will never come.  But Faith's story did not

Faith & Dr. Taylor

In the summer of 1989, a conference of the International Society for Hypertension in Blacks drew a large number of Americans to Nairobi, Kenya.  Dr. Herman A. Taylor was among them, giving a presentation on his medical research.  Kenya immediately captivated him as a vibrant land of stark contrasts: large cities and international hotels, small towns surrounded by sprawling coffee plantations; opulent homes with servants and electronic gates not far from shanty towns, impoverished and dangerous.

At the close of the scientific conference, Dr. Taylor volunteered to help run a hypertension screening clinic in the town of Gatundu outside of Nairobi.  He expected a fairly relaxed afternoon screening and counseling people about hypertension.  Instead he and the other physicians were overwhelmed by a flood of patients suffering from every condition, but hypertension.  Seizure disorders, ulcers, bronchitis, hyperthyroidism, children with diarrhea, and finally Faith Nyambura.

Faith was a sick and weak girl.  She had downcast blood-shot eyes, and a slow, plodding gait.  Her mother supported her as she walked to the examination table.  Through an interpreter, Annah recounted the girl's many trials.  Then the question came that would ultimately give birth to Heart to Heart.  In her beautiful African brogue, the interpreter inquired, "The mother asks, can you help them, doctor?"  After a moment of hesitation, Faith's mother looked the American directly in the eyes and said in a heavily accented, but carefully enunciated English, "Can you help us, doctor?"
 

All physicians are taught to weigh their words carefully, and to never give false hope to a patient. Dr. Taylor hesitated as the implications of the question flashed through his mind.  Finally he turned to Annah and said yes.  The full implications of his statement would nag at him on his return flight to Birmingham.  Having just achieved his specialization in cardiology, Dr. Taylor was racked with a menagerie of problems.  He needed the services of a pediatric cardiologist and a thoracic surgeon in order to help Faith.  Upon returning to his job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center (UABMC), Dr. Taylor began to recruit help.  Dr. Taylor talked to member of the local community and a number of physicians and found the support he needed.  On December 5th, five months to the day that Dr. Taylor and Faith had met in a clinic outside

of Nairobi, Faith, her mother, a a local physician arrived in Birmingham, Alabama.

Faith was admitted to UABMC, evaluated by pediatric cardiologist Dr. Bargeron, and received her operation from thoracic surgeon, Dr. Albert Pacifico.  She recuperated more quickly than anyone expected, and was soon out of the hospital.  At a farewell party for Faith and her mother, the remarkable change in the young girl's demeanor was obvious.  She ran, played with other children, and filled the air with an infectious laughter.   She and her mother returned to Kenya where she continues to lead a happy, healthy existence.  Heart to Heart International Heart to Heart International continued to grow after Faith's departure. Since 1990

the organization has helped over fifty children receive the critical operations or medical care they needed.  The organization cares for children at three facilities across the United States and has developed an educational program for foreign physicians.  Covering the basics of cardiology to the finer points of echocardiography, Heart to Heart's Physician Mini-Fellowships allow for foreign physicians to develop skill that will enable them to ultimately care for their own, critically ill children.   For more information about all of Heart to Heart's programs, please click here.

Please further explore our webpage to learn more about Heart to Heart International!
 

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