A Moment of Grace

Dear Dr. Robert and Fr. Julio,

In the midst of our recent losses and tragedy, I discover a moment of grace. The baby [who] suffers from cardiovascular disease has been saved after the heart surgery in a private hospital. He is a son of an HIV mom, many people and hospitals refuse to do operation for him since his antibody shows that he has HIV, despite of our effort to convince those hospitals that he may not have HIV since he may carry the antibody of the mother, we paid for a DNA PCR testing to confirm, yet the result shows negative, but those hospitals still refused us. In the end we brought him to a private hospital, we had to gather USD 2,700 for this operation, one organization agreed to help us, and including part of your support we use to pay for the hospital fees and medicines. On black Saturday morning, while one of our children passed away, this little infant was undergoing heart surgery, and today, he is discharged from hospital, completely healed, weight increase 0.6kg, smiling with his mom. I turn to God to thank Him, for His mysterious power, that goes beyond my understanding, what I should do is to surrender. Yet, I also never cease to thank God for you have been there to help us.

Please see the attached pictures of the boy after surgery.

In gratitude,

John Phuong Dinh Toai, MI
Committee of Pastoral Care For PLWA
Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City