Twelve-year-old Darwin Wafoymungu could never do the simple things most boys his age could do.
Dr. Charlie Berul works on a patient in the cardiac cath lab at Children's National Medical Center. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
Dr. Berul poses with Myron and his mother, Deborah Aguno before a procedure. (Courtesy Dr. Berul)
Courtesy Dr. Berul
The heart monitor screen during a procedure. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
An image of the inside of Myron's chest. The black lines or "branches" are the catheters. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
Marsha Duckwitz hosts children and their moms at her Northern Virginia home. Here she sits with Deborah while they wait for Myron to be taken to his room after the procedure. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
Myron's mother, Deborah Aguno, meets with Dr. Berul after surgery. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
Darwin and Dr. Sable outside Darwin's room at Children's National Medical Center. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
海角社区app/Paula Wolfson
Darwin stands in the hallway outside his room at Children's National Medical Center. (海角社区app/Paula Wolfson)
WASHINGTON – Twelve-year-old Darwin Wafoymungu could never do the simple things most boys his age could do.
But now, he’s a kid with a plan.
“I want to play,” Darwin says.
Darwin’s mom, Betty Acken, looks around his room at Children’s National Medical Center as if she’s landed in another world. They’ve traveled from a village in Uganda to Washington, D.C. where a group of strangers fixed her son’s heart.
Acken whispers to an interpreter and smiles.
“She feels so grateful and so happy about everything,” says the interpreter. “He is a miracle child and a miracle boy!”
Darwin is one of two Ugandan children currently at the D.C. hospital for treatment, part of a volunteer effort by doctors at Children’s to improve pediatric
