The Miracle Baby Programme (MBP) was founded by UTAR Chancellor, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik with the noble mission to help babies and children in Malaysia with congenital heart disease that need corrective surgery. This programme is a tripartite collaboration of Penang General Hospital, UTAR and Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital(SSSSH) in India which is a centre renowned for congenital heart surgery.
From
the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia website, CHD (congenital heart disease) are defects of the heart's
structure that are present at birth. CHD are the most common type of birth
defect. It is estimated that between 4000 - 5000 of the 500,000 (every 1 out of
100 ) babies born in Malaysia each year are born with congenital heart disease.
About 2000 - 3000 CHD patients in Malaysia require surgery each year. However,
due to current situation in Malaysia where the number of those babies that
require surgery is more than what the current medical system in Malaysia can
provide.
This mission of MBP is very much in line with the Ministry of Health (MOH)’s mission to provide more paediatric congenital cardiac surgery services, while working to build a team of local experts. Having the team of medical experts from SSSSH to work with the local cardiac surgeons and doctors to perform the congenital cardiac surgeries will effectively facilitate the transfer of expertise and skill from SSSSH to our local surgeons and medical staff.
The
plan is for the Miracle Baby Programme to be carried out in a long-term basis
by bringing over experts from SSSSH to Malaysia on regular basis to do cardiac surgeries
for about 20-25 paediatric patients with congenital heart disease for every
visit