Opening the hearts

Monday I got an e-mail from a listserv: Can anyone here help Emily? She has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, she is in China, and Beijing's hospital can't help her.

I knew that condition too well. A friend lost her baby to that 9 years ago.

A bunch of us volunteered to help. Some contacted organizations that give grants to help bring children here. I volunteered to call Children's to see if we could get her in. Others sent money for the foster family.

I got word last night that Emily had died.

But...

I had told Brian about Emily early on. He's done a 180 and has decided that someone--ANYONE almost--needs to help the children there who have problems. Makes me wonder where we'll be in a few years...