A Heartbeat Between Worlds

Written by: Amy M. Le, following her recent trip to Vietnam and visit to Hoan My Da Nang, an HHV partner hospital

About the author:

Amy M. Le is the award-winning author of The Snow Trilogy and CEO of Quill Hawk Publishing. She was born with an atrial septal defect months before the end of the Vietnam War. In 1980, shortly after her sixth birthday, Amy received life-saving open-heart surgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital by triple-board-certified Dr. Dale Hall. She lives in Oklahoma with her family and travels the globe to share her story while also amplifying diverse voices one book at a time through her publishing company.

A Heartbeat Between Worlds:

I did not expect to find myself in a cardiac unit. Yet, here I am, threaded between the soft footsteps of doctors and the soft murmur of Vietnamese spoken in familiar, almost-forgotten cadences. A language I carry in fragments. A homeland I understand more in feeling than in fluency.

Inside Bệnh Viện Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng (Hoàn Mỹ Hospital in Danang, Vietnam), I am not just a visitor; I am a daughter of somewhere in between.

There is a particular kind of distance that lives in the body of a diasporic child. It is not measured in miles, but in memory. In what was carried across oceans and what was left behind.

Growing up, Vietnam was both everything and something just out of reach. A story told in glimpses. A place shaped by my mom’s voice, her silence, and her longing.

And now, standing in this hospital in Đà Nẵng, I feel that distance collapse in small, sacred moments as I interact with the medical team, the little heart warriors waiting for their treatment, and their parents.

I watch a father hold his son tight, but not too tight, with concern crinkling around his eyes. A mother, curious about the visit, tracks my husband, son, and me with her cautious eyes. To them, I must look so out of place, until I show them my scar and tell them my story. The fear subsides and hope takes hold. There was a time when my mom was told I wouldn’t live to see my fifth birthday. Now, here I stand, a strong, healthy, vibrant fifty-one-year-old.

The children and their families share one open room with no privacy. Perhaps that is a blessing. They are all in this together. A little boy catches my attention. He is seven but looks like he is four. Another girl captures my heart and eagerly selects two gifts from my bag. Like all children, they want to be normal, healthy, and play.

There are places where medicine feels purely clinical, and then there are places where it feels sacred.

Inside the Cardiac Unit at Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng

There are places where medicine feels purely clinical, and then there are places where it feels sacred.

My visit to the cardiac unit at Bệnh Viện Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng (Hoàn Mỹ Hospital in Danang, Vietnam) is firmly the latter.

Here, in the steady rhythm of daily service and the quiet urgency of surgical teams, lives are not just treated—they are restored. Here, life hangs in the balance. At the heart of this work is a powerful partnership with Healing Hearts Vietnam (HHV), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that no child is denied life-saving cardiac care simply because of cost.

Where Hope Meets Medicine

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) remains one of the most pressing pediatric health challenges in Vietnam. According to the VinaCapital Foundation, approximately 15,000 children are born with CHD every year in Vietnam, yet only about half receive timely treatment. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 40,000 babies are born in the United States each year with a heart defect. One in four babies with heart defects has a critical heart defect requiring surgery during the first year of life. The most common CHD is Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD).

For many families, especially those in rural or low-income communities, the barriers are overwhelming: distance, lack of diagnosis, and most critically, cost.

That’s where HHV steps in.

Through its partnership with Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng and other hospitals, HHV works to bridge the financial gap, transforming what would be impossible into something lifesaving and immediate.

The Power of Partnership

The collaboration between Healing Hearts Vietnam and Bệnh Viện Hoàn Mỹ Đà Nẵng spans nearly two decades—a relationship built on trust, shared expertise, and a unified mission: to give every child a chance at life.

Together, they have:

• Expanded access to cardiac surgery in Central Vietnam and beyond

• Enhanced local medical training and knowledge exchange

• Conducted screenings and post-operative care for underserved communities

This is not just charity—it is capacity-building. It strengthens Vietnam’s healthcare system from within.

The Cost of a Heartbeat

One of the most striking realities is how far a dollar can go in this space. In Vietnam, the total cost of surgery without subsidies is approximately $4,500–$5,000 USD. In a country where many families earn only a few dollars a day, even reduced costs remain out of reach without intervention. HHV steps in to close the financial gap and has funded more than 700 surgeries. In 2025 alone, they funded 115 surgeries. There are tens of thousands of children in Vietnam still waiting for treatment. Each surgery is more than a procedure—it is a future reclaimed.

Bridging More than Language: the Work of Pastor An

One of the most quietly powerful forces behind this collaboration is Pastor Lê Văn An. Through his ministry, he saw children suffering and prayed about how he could help. His prayers led him to HHV, where he bridges families, doctors, patients, and donors together to save lives. He travels nonstop to do God’s work, and his beautiful daughter, Psalm Thiên Thi Lê, accompanies him to translate and help reconcile the language barrier.

In a setting where speech and cultural nuance can easily become obstacles, Pastor An serves as a connector between worlds, facilitating communication between HHV’s international network and the Vietnamese medical teams at Hoàn Mỹ and other hospitals.

But his role goes far beyond translation. He helps:

• Align expectations between donors, doctors, and families

• Advocates for patients navigating complex systems

• Builds trust across cultural and institutional lines

• Ensures that compassion is not lost in translation

In many ways, Pastor An embodies the mission itself: connection, care, and unwavering commitment to human dignity.

Inside the Cardiac Unit

Walking through the cardiac unit, what strikes me most is the humanity. Parents wait with quiet resilience, making me think of my mother doing the same with me. Doctors move with focused precision. Children—fragile, brave, and full of possibility—are excited to receive a visit from a foreigner bearing toys and gifts.

Every bed tells a story. Every surgery rewrites one. And behind each success is an invisible network of donors, advocates, and partners who make it possible.

I learned that most of the cases sponsored by HHV come from Trà Vinh, where there are many ethnic minorities, mostly Khmer. There is discrimination against these minorities, and little attention or resources are given to them.

It saddens me greatly, as I was born in Trà Vinh in 1974, nine months before the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War—or the American War, as the Vietnamese call it.

Inside the Room of Hope

There is a particular kind of courage that lives inside a cardiac unit. It belongs to the surgeons who hold a child’s heart in their hands with the weight of an entire family’s future resting on their skills.

It belongs to the nurses who monitor every breath, every fluctuation, every fragile sign of recovery.

But perhaps most of all, it belongs to the parents.

I see the quiet negotiation between fear and faith in their eyes and smiles. They hover close to their child, but not too close, as if love itself can tip the balance.

I wonder what it must feel like to place your child into the hands of strangers and trust that they will be returned to you whole. It is in this moment I thank God for my chance at life and my mom’s unwavering love and fight to keep me alive. Many hands made it possible for me to go from surviving to thriving.

The Work Still Ahead

Despite the incredible progress, the need remains urgent. Thousands of children continue to wait for surgery. Early diagnosis is still limited in rural areas, and funding gaps persist for life-saving procedures.

Organizations like Healing Hearts Vietnam are working tirelessly, but they cannot do it alone. In the end, this is not just about healthcare; it’s about equity, access, and whether a child gets to grow up.

Reflection

As I leave Hoàn Mỹ Hospital in Đà Nẵng, I think about how fragile—and how resilient—the human heart truly is.

In this place, science and compassion meet in the most profound way. And through partnerships like this, something extraordinary happens: hope becomes tangible, and healing becomes possible.

Lives are given a second chance.

What We Carry Forward

When I left Hoàn Mỹ, I carried more than memory. I carried responsibility. To witness something like this and stand at the intersection of need and possibility is to be changed by it.

There are still many unfinished stories. There is also a network of people who refuse to look away, a partnership that continues to grow, and a belief that every child deserves a heartbeat that carries them into the future.

For me, Dr. Dale Hall, Susan Russell, my mom, and God are the reasons my heart keeps beating.

For you, readers, your contributions—however small or large—can be the reason a child’s heart keeps beating.

Please give what you can. Fund one surgery or part of one. Share this story. Carry it forward. Somewhere in Vietnam, a child is waiting. That child may grow up to be an author and publisher like me. Or they may fulfill their soul assignment by saving lives or doing wondrous things.

Together, we can make sure their story doesn’t end before it truly begins.

Donate. Share. Save a life. Thank you, and blessings to you all.

Click to Give