Three months ago, Clint Thornhill was told he had only mere months to live. The 19-year-old from a tiny village in Grenada was sick and desperately needed open heart surgery. Thornhill had rheumatic fever as a child and developed valve disease that weakened his heart.
As fate would have it, Dr. Mark Lanzieri met the boy at a clinic on the island and knew he had to immediately get Thornhill to the United States in order to save his life.
Dr. Lanzieri, who returns three times a year to treat people like Thornhill, raised money to pay for the plane tickets to fly the young man and his mother to Maine. He along with Dr. Paul Weldner agreed to do open heart surgery for free! (The surgery costs over $100,000 without insurance, the doctor said.)
"To be able to help Mark's goal of providing care to these underprivileged patients and their families, it was a no brainer, I really wanted to get involved," Dr. Weldner told WCSH6.
On Tuesday, the teen checked into Central Maine Medical Center, where the doctors performed the surgery. Just three days later, the 19-year-old is ready to leave the hospital.
He'll head back to Grenada in a few weeks and be able to go on and live a long life, thanks to his amazing doctors!
If this story restored your faith in humanity, please SHARE it with your friends.
