Three-year-old Joshua Kalwatman now has a new lease of life after undergoing open heart surgery at the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital.
His mother Mesika Kalwatman was beside him when they travelled from Vanuatu to Fiji for medical treatment and expressed her gratitude to the staff and management of the hospital for giving her son the chance to live a prosperous life.
“I am very happy for Joshua, my son will now get a new life,” she said.
Ms Kalwatman recalled that she knew of her son’s diagnosis when he was just a six-month-old after an echocardiogram revealed her baby had Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a birth defect which affects normal blood flow through the heart.
“He started to get fever and that was when we took him to the hospital and they did an echocardiogram and was diagnosed with TOF,” she said.
They were then informed by local doctors that they would have to travel and seek treatment overseas, however, she came to know about the Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Heart Hospital.
“There is a Fijian lady who lives in Vanuatu. She told me about it, so I followed the page and I started to communicate with them.”
Despite the circumstances, Ms Kalwatman and her husband Roy relied on their spiritual beliefs as a form of strength, reassurance and hope. It was also through the kindness from loved ones back at home that assisted with their trip to Fiji.
“They called for us to come here in two weeks’ time, but we knew it was the right timing. We have been praying about it and I know it was God’s right timing for us to come and that He would provide”.
oshua and his parents will be returning to Vanuatu on October 4.
