PENANG, Thurs, - Two of the four Cambodian children who arrived last week for corrective heart surgery at the Penang Adventist Hospital here are recovering.

They are 13-year-old boy Lam Phay and five-year-old girl Rean Thavleak.

Lam, who was suffering from a ventricular septal defect (VSD), is recuperating at the children’s ward after undergoing surgery last Monday while Rean, who suffered from an atrial septal defect, is recovering in the hospital’s intensive cardiac care unit following corrective surgery on Tuesday.

Rotary Club of Penang president Nutan Shah, its community services director Michael Chen and Rotarian Lloyd Yeoh visited Rean at the hospital yesterday.

Nine-month old baby boy Pun Chea, who suffers from VSD, is expected to undergo surgery on Monday while the surgery date for nine-year-old Van Sonoy, who is suffering from pulmonary stenosis (PS), has yet to be fixed.

The four are the first batch of about 45 heart children from the Angkor Hospital for children (AHC) who will undergo corrective heart surgery at the Penang Adventist Hospital under the Gift of Life Programme 2001.

Under the programme, rotary International, through a matching-grant, has committed to contribute RM380,000 (US$100,000) by sponsoring US$2,000 for the US$5,000 surgery cost of 50 heart case children.

Meanwhile Nutan, in appealing for public donations, said more money was needed to fund the Gift of Life Programme in aid of both local and foreign children suffering from heart problems.

Donations which are tax exempt of Penang, Gift Of Life 2 Account’, c/o 7 Jalan Kelawei, 10250 Penang. For further details, call Lim Chooi Eng at 04-2266331 or 04-2261133.