Siham: a girl from Kenya treated in Dodoma
Siham Aden was four when a severe cough led to an echo and a diagnosis of PDA. The operation she needed cost more than her father could find.

Siham Aden is a young girl from Kenya. In February 2021, when she was four, a severe cough took her to a doctor. An echo, a scan of the heart, showed that she had a patent ductus arteriosus, known as PDA, a blood vessel near the heart that should have closed after birth.
Her father was told to take her to Mater Hospital for an operation costing KSh 800,000. He could not raise that amount.
Through the Care for a Child's Heart organisation, the family was connected to The One New Heart Tanzania.
Siham had her PDA closure at Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma on 14 July 2021.
We are glad to be able to help children beyond our borders when a partner asks, and we are grateful to everyone who makes that possible.
Published with the family's written consent.
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