PENANG, Wed: Forty four adults and 42 children have undergone heart surgery sponsored by the Penang Adventist Hospital Heart Fund since it was set up in 1988.

The fund, which stands at RM261,589.31, received a RM4,100 contribution from Citicorp Trade Services (M) Sdn Bhd today.

In the next two weeks, 19 young Cambodian patients will undergo heart surgery in Malaysia, courtesy of the fund.

This is also a testimony of the excellent healthcare services and facilities available in the country, said hospital president Teddric J. Mohr.

Fund chairman Lim Chooi Eng hopes the public will contribute more so it can help more heart patients, both local and foreign, who could not afford surgery.

She said the fund has two sections – for local patients and international child patients – with money raised locally going to the local fund and the other supported by funds raised abroad.

The local fund now stands at RM138,765.39 and the international children’s fund RM122,823.92.

Efforts are ongoing to obtain a matching sum for the international children’s fund via Rotary Club New York and Rotary International, said Mohr, who is a member of the Penang Rotary Club.

He said child heart patients from Indonesia and the Philippines have also benefited from the fund.

According to Lim, most of the heart operations sponsored by the fund are carried out in Malaysian hospitals, such as Penang Adventist which is the only one in the northern region to offer paediatric heart surgery, and the National Heart Institute and Gleneagle Intan in Kuala Lumpur.