What is the Brave Heart Fund?

The Brave Heart Fund is a charitable, fundraising initiative established in November 2003 at the Children’s Heart Center at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).

It is operated by volunteers whose lives have been touched by Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

The Fund’s mission is that “no child should die of heart disease because of a lack of funds” and its goal is to help cover the cost of surgeries and hospitalization for needy children suffering from CHD.

How is the Fund Helping?

The Brave Heart Fund helps cover the cost of hospital treatment and surgeries for children whose families qualify for financial aid at the Social Services Office at AUBMC.

Every day, children are diagnosed with CHD, but many are unfortunately compelled to postpone life-saving surgery due to a lack of resources. This fund aims to provide an immediate and perpetual funding source for needy children with CHD, irrespective of their race or religion.

With the support of the Office of Development at the American University of Beirut and the sponsorship of companies, all overheads incurred by the Fund are covered so that every dollar donated to the Fund is used to pay for the heart surgeries of needy patients.

The cost of treatment varies depending on the procedure - from $8,000 for a balloon procedure to more than $30,000 for complex neonatal open- heart surgery. Below is a sample of the procedures and their approximate costs:

• Complex neonatal open-heart surgery costs more than $ 30,000
• Open-heart surgery costs an average of $22,000
• Interventional catheterization procedure costs an average of $ 10,000
• Closed heart operation costs an average of $ 12,000
• Simple balloon procedure can cost $ 8,000

In 2008, the number of surgeries covered by the Brave Heart Fund has grown to 130, a very significant 30% increase, resulting in a surgery covered by the Fund almost every other day of the week. Nonetheless, the list of needy patients is growing weekly as new cases are diagnosed and the economic situation worsens. Many families are unfortunately compelled to postpone life-saving surgery because of a lack of funds, often to the detriment of their child’s future hopes of a full recovery.

Thanks to the commitment of our community to helping needy children suffering from congenital heart disease, the Brave Heart Fund has been able to cover the costs of life-saving surgeries for 1300 needy children in just 7 years. Most importantly, every dollar was spent on saving a child's life; the Brave Heart Fund having maintained no expenditure on overhead in the first 5 years, and currently opearting with less than 2% overhead

Since its inception the fund relies solely on philanthropic support and on the generosity of its donors. We need your help to make sure that:

“No child should die from heart disease because of a lack of Funds”.