Local Child’s Mission is to Mend Hearts of Afflicted Children; California Kids Raise Money to Present Gift of Life to Other Children
Ten year old Jacob Sipos of Thousand Oaks was diagnosed with heart disease when he was just six weeks old. His parents received the news that he could die if corrective surgeries weren’t performed. Ten years and four surgeries later, Jacob is now in the 5th grade. Unlike most ten year olds, Jacob continues to celebrate his birthdays by raising money to save lives.
Thousands Oaks, CA (PRWEB) March 1, 2005 -- Ten year old Jacob Sipos of
Thousand Oaks was diagnosed with heart disease when he was just six weeks old.
His parents received the news that he could die if corrective surgeries weren’t
performed. Ten years and four surgeries later, Jacob is now in the 5th grade.
Unlike most ten year olds, Jacob continues to celebrate his birthdays by raising
money to save lives.
On his fifth birthday, Jacob asked not for a gift
for himself, but for money to help other children with Congenital Heart Disease.
At Jacob’s request his parents, Debbie and Neil, established The Jacob Sipos
Honorary HEART Fund. It was through Jacob‘s desire to help others that the Sipos
family met the Small family, who’s daughter Delaney was diagnosed with heart
disease at one week of age. Following Delaney’s corrective heart surgery, Brenda
and Craig Small established the Delaney Kate Honorary HEART Fund, much as the
Sipos family had created Jacob’s.
In an effort to raise funds on a much
broader level, the two families got together and combined their children’s funds
to create “The Cardiac Kids Have H.E.A.R.T. Foundation” (CKHH), a non profit
501(c) (3) organization established in honor of Jacob and Delaney. The name is
an acronym which stands for Helping Educate, Assist, Research and Treat children
with Congenital Heart Disease.
To date, the Sipos and Small families
combined have raised over $60,000 and an Inaugural charity fundraiser for CKHH
is planned for Saturday, March 5 at 6:30 pm at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas
Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road, Calabasas.
The fund raiser
will offer wine tasting, dinner, a live and silent auction and a slide show; a
pictorial history of CKHH. There will also be live music & Jacobs mother
Debbie, a gifted musician, will perform a song she wrote at Jacob’s request,
especially for the occasion. Jacob himself will give a speech and a special
humanitarian award will be presented to Dr. Wen Cheng, the surgeon for both
Jacob and Delaney.
Within a few months of establishing Jacob’s HEART
Fund, the Sipos’ heard about Andy Aguirre, an Ecuadorian child. Andy’s heart had
no right ventricle and he would die without surgery. In this 3rd World nation,
there was no technology that could help Andy, until a traveling group of
doctors, from Cedars Sinai Medical Center arrived in his village.
Andy
Aguirre was the first of 5 children that the Sipos family sponsored. The Small
family has sponsored an additional four children that otherwise would not have
received the medical care they so desperately needed to stay
alive.
Although the hospitals, doctors and nurses all volunteer their
time and skill, and airlines will donate airfare, the operation still costs
$9,000. Jacob’s Fund helped raise a portion of the funds and Andy’s was the
first life to be saved by the fund. Cardiac Kids Have H.E.A.R.T. will continue
to collect donations to ensure children worldwide can get the medical help they
need.
According to Debbie Sipos, Craig Small, one of the founding members
of CKHH, traveled to Ecuador with a team from Cedars Sinai to see firsthand what
was needed. What he saw was heart wrenching; lines and lines of parents;
literally hundreds of people with sick children, begging the doctors to take
their child with them.
The experience galvanized CKHH to further
increase fundraising efforts and the group hopes to raise over $30,000 on
Saturday towards its goal of $100,000.00 during 2005. CKHH currently has four
young children from various 3rd World countries that they are sponsoring for
life saving surgery.
One of the key goals of CKHH, according to Debbie
Sipos, is to promote education for pre and neonatal detection. While 1 out of
100 babies; 1% of the entire population, are born with congenital heart defects,
it is often missed as a regular ultrasound does not have a high enough
resolution to detect the minute defects.
CKHH encourages a broader use
of Fetal Echo Cardiograms, which do have the capability. If caught early, some
can even be operated on in utero, “women have Amnios, ultrasounds, pap smears
and breast exams as a matter of course. We would like to see Fetal Echo
Cardiograms become as regular an occurrence. Such a simple process can help save
the lives of thousands of children. If caught early, the process can be so much
simpler,” Sipos commented.
Jacob’s current long range
goal is to become a doctor himself. His mother fondly remembers the story of a
child from a 3rd World Country who many years ago was bought to the US for life
saving surgery. As a young adult, he came back to the US and went through
medical school, returning to his country as its 1st physician, “there is no
better feeling than to know you have helped someone – you took part in saving
the life of a human being. It is the greatest gift one person can give to
another,” Sipos said.
For more information about Cardiac Kids Have
H.E.A.R.T. and the fundraiser on Saturday, March 5, please call Debbie Sipos or
Brenda Small at (805)497-3124, or (805) 558-9918.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb213630.htm