Birthday. Svitlana Panaiotidi

My name is Svitlana Panaiotidi. I am a former Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine, a mother of a son and a stepmother to three daughters.

Every year I dedicate my birthday to someone.

This year I want to return to what my charitable journey began with – children’s hearts.

Each year in Ukraine about 3,500 children are born with congenital heart defects that need help. Among these children, more than half a thousand can be saved even without a chest incision! To do this, endovascular procedures to install cardiac implants are required.

Installation of an occluder (cardiac implant) is an innovative method that, unlike open‑heart surgery, does not require opening the chest cavity to perform the operation, nor does it entail a long rehabilitation. The child’s heart is not stopped, preventing possible hypoxia and loss of brain cell function. These are absolutely safe and modern procedures that cardiothoracic surgeons at the Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery have been performing since 2013, sometimes up to 11 per day. The implant placement surgery lasts only a few hours, and within two days the child returns home to a normal life. It is performed by doctors free of charge, but without the necessary medical equipment (implants) they are powerless.

Purchasing heart implants, where the cost for a single one can sometimes reach 150 000 UAH, is an unaffordable and catastrophically large amount for an ordinary Ukrainian family. For more than 10 years, fundraisers like this one ran on the charity platform dobro.ua: in partnership with the Future Hearts charity foundation, the platform supported the national programme “Save the Little Heart”, which brought caring people and companies together around children with congenital heart defects. Now I am raising funds directly on the Future Hearts foundation website.

Thanks to my friends, colleagues and acquaintances, more than 100 children with congenital heart defects have been saved. I hope that this year even more happy parents and healthy children will be welcomed.