PROJECT KIDS WORLDWIDE
PHOTO COLLECTION
Until his recent
surgery at NYU Medical Center, Deepak Loknauth could barely muster
the energy to walk. When he was only five, rheumatic fever raged through
his body and left him with a damaged mitral valve - one of the heart's
flap-like structures that prevents the backward flow of blood. The
damage worsened over time. Deepak gradually lost his appetite. Chest
pain, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, and poor sleep were his
daily symptoms. Rheumatic fever and resulting valvular disease had
adversely affected the boy's health.
Deepak is from Guyana, one of the poorest countries in South America.
Rheumatic fever, rare in the United States, is a common occurrence
in Deepak's world. Poverty is its underlying cause, a disease of deprivation
that erodes the health status of the Guyanese population, and especially
its children.
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