ROSLYN, NEW YORK, AUG. 5, 2004 -- Four-and-a-half-year-old Jinpeng Zhao, who comes from Hebei Province in The People’s Republic of China, didn’t have enough energy to ride a bike, play with a ball, or do any other normal activities of children his age. It took all the energy he could muster to get on a plane and come to New York for life-saving cardiac care. His parents knew it was the only hope for their ailing child, who was plagued with a congenital heart defect that zapped his strength and brought him closer to death with each passing day.

But Jinpeng will dash out of St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center® in Roslyn today, and return to China with his mother, Ling Han, to lead a normal life - but not before blowing out the candles on a cake in an early celebration of his fifth birthday. The Forum’s Children Foundation and Gift of Life of the Rotary Club of New York will also use the opportunity to announce a joint initiative under which some two dozen children from The People’s Republic of China suffering with congenital heart defects will receive life-saving treatment in the New York metropolitan region in the months ahead.

Jinpeng’s family did not have the financial resources to pay for the type of corrective repair required to patch the hole in his heart, and feared that he wouldn’t make it to his fifth birthday. It’s a procedure that’s performed on a routine basis in the U.S., but not in the impoverished, rural region of China where they live.

Then came hope from thousands of miles across the globe - an attorney and physician who were boyhood friends; a trio of humanitarian organizations; and the Long Island hospital and a pediatric cardiologist, who answered the family’s desperate plea. Jinpeng will now live to blow out the candles on his fifth birthday, and for many more birthdays to come.

“The doctors told us little Jinpeng’s condition was grave because of a 2.5 centimeter hole in his heart - the largest they had ever seen in a case like this. It was a matter of life and death. They have given Jinpeng a second chance at life,” said William D. Fugazy, chairman of the Forum’s Children Foundation, which played a significant role in giving the child a new lease on life by paying for the life-saving procedure performed at St. Francis Hospital by Dr. Sean Levchuck, a pediatric cardiologist.

While the cost normally associated with such treatment is tens of thousands of dollars, Dr. Levchuck and St. Francis Hospital rovided their services at a fraction of the cost. But even at a cost of $5,000, Jinpeng’s family would have been unable to afford the care. The Chinese Gift of Life paid airfare expenses for the child and his mother, who stayed at the Ronald McDonald House.

“This was a little boy with a very big hole in his heart. He would not have lived to see many more birthdays without treatment,” Dr. Levchuck said.

Jinpeng tired easily and suffered from poor circulation because of his congenital heart defect. He would have developed complications from asthma and pneumonia, and would never have been able to attend school. Instead, his heart is as good as new thanks to the procedure. “To see him running around just hours after the procedure is gratifying beyond words. You realize you just saved this child’s life. I thank all those involved for giving me this opportunity,” said Dr. Levchuck, who has two sons, ages 2 and 5.

Dr. Levchuck used state-of-the-art medicine that avoided performing open-heart surgery. He inserted a catheter into a vein in the boy’s leg, advanced the catheter to the heart, then patched the hole with a specialized closure device placed through the catheter into Jinpeng’s heart. St. Francis Hospital is the site of one of the highest volumes for cardiac catheterization in the nation with more than 16,000 cardiac catheterization procedures, including those to repair congenital defects, performed in 2003.

Jinpeng is the second youngster from China to receive life-saving treatment under a joint initiative announced today by the Gift of Life Program of the Rotary Club of New York, the Rotary Club of Beijing and the Forum’s Children Foundation. The organizations plan to bring nearly two dozen children to the U.S. from China for life-saving cardiac care, according to Dr. Salvatore Cumella, a member of the foundation’s board of directors.

The joint initiative came about when Dr. Cumella crossed paths with Aldo Frustaci, an attorney and boyhood friend who is the immediate past president of the Gift of Life Program. “It’s surreal that we grew up together and are now helping to save children one life at a time,” Dr. Cumella said.

Mr. Fugazy said the Forum’s Children Foundation pledged $50,000 to the Chinese Gift of Life, earmarked for children from China in need of life-saving treatment. Rotary International matched the pledge, which will allow the organizations to provide care for twice as many children.

“Jinpeng and others with a similar condition would not have this opportunity without the efforts of Gift of Life and the Forum’s Children Foundation. These children are fortunate to have this second chance,” said Sammy Hsiao, director of the Gift of Life, Inc. of Rotary District 7250, who will travel to China to screen children in order to determine those most in need of further treatment.

Mr. Fugazy noted that in addition to saving lives of youngsters, the humanitarian efforts of the Forum’s Children Foundation - which has saved over 30 children since its inception in 1999 - have produced a positive residual effect on diplomatic relations between the U.S. and other countries.

For example, the foundation works with the U.S. Energy Department to bring Russian children here for life-saving surgery, making a significant impact on the efforts of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and Russia. Mr. Fugazy expects the initiative between his organization and Gift of Life to have the same diplomatic effects between the U.S. and The People’s Republic of China. Mr. Frustaci agreed: “We have a philosophy at Gift of Life, that every child we save becomes an ambassador for peace.”

The Forum’s Children Foundation
Contact: Mangione Associates, Inc.
Steve Mangione 
(718) 518-1600

St. Francis Hospital, The Heart Center®
Contact: Suzanne Stallone
(516) 705-6651

Gift of Life
Contact: Sammy Hsiao
(516) 721-2249