SIX months old Phiona Uwase was born with a heart defect.  The condition was not detected until she was two and a half months old. Uwase was born with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), a condition where one or more holes are found in the wall that separates the right and left chambers of the heart.At birth, Uwase looked like any other normal baby.  But after sometime, she started coughing severely and drastically lost weight."She also had difficulty in breathing,” says Juliet Murekatete 34, the mother.  Murekatete took her to different health facilities in Nyagatare, but she was only given antibiotics.But when she checked into Policlinique la Medicale popularly known as Kanimba’s Clinic, the dreadful news was delivered. Murekatete was told that her baby had a ‘very big hole on the heart’ and she was referred to Dr Joseph Mucumbitsi, a Pediatric cardiologist at King Faisal Hospital.Dr Mucumbitsi confirmed that the baby had a very big hole on the heart that couldn’t be treated in Rwanda. Without any source of income, the mother was very distressed and suddenly confronted with the dilemma of where she would get the money to take her daughter for treatment abroad."Some of my relatives chased me from their homes. They told me to take my baby to die from somewhere else and not their home. This made me lose hope and believed that my baby was actually on the verge of death,” she says.   Uwase is just one of the many on the waiting list of patients in need of cardiac surgery in the country.  Medical experts say about 70 people are diagnonised with  heart related diseases annually.   Dr Mucumbitsi says every year 60 to70 patients with heart defects in Rwanda are treated. Good Samaritans intervene to save UwaseThierry Sluysmans, a Pediatric Cardiologist from Chain of Hope,Belgium noted that Uwase’s condition needed to be fixed urgently. She was so exhausted and could hardly breastfeed according to Sluysmans."Her heart defect was in its critical stages and needed to be treated before she makes one year. We offered to foot her travel and hospitalbills to save her life, explains Sluysmans.He says foster family offered to take care of her for a month to monitor her while she was on treatment in Belgium. She’s now totally healed and gained a few more kilograms. She can now live normally like all other children."When you change the life of one child, you change the life of the whole family,” he said.  Murekatete is excited about the miraculous journey to her daughter’s healing which cost 8,000 Euros."The doctors told me that my daughter is now going to live a normal life just like other people and she too, can have children in future,” excited Murekatete exclaimed.Ray of hope  for other heart patientsAccording to Dr. Mucumbitsi, from April 2006 to October 2012, a total of 346 paediatric and adult patients have benefitted from cardiac interventions including 266 surgeries in 140 children and 126 adults and 80 transcatheter interventions in children.He said that it would cost $10,000 to 35,000 to treat each case if sent to India or South Africa.Rwanda currently has 2 pediatric cardiologists, 2 adult Cardiologists with one in private sector and another coming soon.Dr Mucumbitsi also said that a Centre of Excellence for Cardiac Surgery is also a project underway.  It will offer treatment for children with heart defects. More Rwandan medics are also being trained for this specialisation.