Budapest, March 2, 2005

In March and April people who call the Matáv Donation Line on a wireline telephone will donate 100 HUF to the Child Heart Foundation of Debrecen. The foundation will buy from the proceeds a heart monitor for the Debrecen Children's Clinic.

By calling 1788 between March 1 and April 30 Matáv customers can contribute to the treatment of Debrecen children through the Child Heart Foundation. The foundation will buy from the proceeds a heart monitor for the Debrecen Children's Clinic, so that congenital and acquired heart problems can be detected effectively and accurately. Without this device child cardiology care is unthinkable. The Children's Clinic of the Debrecen University Medical and Health Center caters for young heart patients in the city, the county and in many cases the entire region of Northeast Hungary.

The Child Heart Foundation was started in 1995 by the director and the child cardiologists of the Children's Clinic with the aim of promoting the establishment of a clinical department and outpatient clinic of high professional standard, but which will make the little patients feel at ease.
Over the past years the foundation financed the purchase of a 24-hour ECG monitor, a defibrillator and stress-state ECG system. Besides, it has paid for the repair costs of the home monitors of young heart transplant patients in poor financial circumstances.

Congenital heart defect is one of the most common deficiencies diagnosed in childhood. In Hajdú-Bihar county 80-100 new cases are diagnosed each year. Half of these children need heart surgery, which is performed in Budapest. In order to get the children in time to the Budapest Cardiology Institute, the heart defects must be diagnosed early and accurately, and the little patients must receive appropriate treatment until the eventual operation. Today, the great majority of cardiac development disorders can be corrected, and the heart patients can lead a full life similar to their healthy fellows. Most children return to the clinic after the operation for regular checkups. The nine-year-old heart ultrasound monitor of the Children's Clinic is used for some 3000 examinations annually, but it often breaks down and is no longer economical to operate. The rapid technical development of the past ten decades has also made it obsolete. The new equipment costs 17-20 million HUF, which the Debrecen University wants to buy, among other things, with the donations received on the Matáv Donation Line.