Baby is first 1MCA aid recipient

---->Help at hand: Dr Chua (left) at a press conference Friday after visiting the four-month-old baby at Gleneagles Hospital Kuala Lumpur. With him are the baby’s parents Ong and Ang.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hole-in-heart baby Ang Tian Teck is the first aid recipient from the 1MCA Medical Foundation, after MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek pledged it would pay the shortfall in his medical fees.

Speaking after visiting the boy, who had heart surgery yesterday, Dr Chua said the MCA should immediately help the four-month-old baby.

“This is a deserving and emergency case that cannot be further delayed,” said Dr Chua, who learned of the boy from a newspaper article.

“As a medical doctor, I know that this is a condition that probably needs the baby to stay in hospital for a long time. And the whole family will also be involved in an illness like this, as the father has had to quit his job to look after his baby.

“So we thought that we should step forward to help. We pledged to pay for any shortfall in expenditure for the surgical procedures. And we are willing to discuss with the parents if they need further funding.”

Ang is the first child of Ang Kek Guan, 38, and Ong Lay Pin, 38, a secretary, on whose income the household depends.

The baby, who suffers from ventricular septal defect, was transferred to the Gleneagles Hospital Kuala Lumpur from Klang General Hospital early this week.

The hospital’s consultant paediatric cardiologist Dr M.K. Lim said the baby underwent surgery on Wednes day and was expected to be out of the intensive care unit in two days.

“The child gets to go home in 10 days or two weeks,” he said, adding that Ang had been staying in the hospital since he was born.

He said the hospital was currently collecting donations for the baby’s medical fees totalling about RM30,000.

On the 1MCA Medical Foundation, Dr Chua said the MCA had managed to raise RM4.5mil in the two weeks since announcing its establishment.

“The response has been very positive. Therefore, we have decided to raise the target to RM10mil,” he added.

“We would like to thank Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as he has agreed to give tax exemption for donations to the foundation.”

Dr Chua said he would meet with MCA deputy president and Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, who is the foundation’s selection committee chairman, to draft the guidelines for the foundation.

----------->Tian Teck after his surgery on Wednesday.

THE STAR (Friday October 15, 2010)