About Us
It is quite an honor for Open Hearts for Orphans to join forces with Little Hearts Medical and to carry their torch as a program within our medical intervention initiatives. LHM property will be absorbed as a pediatric cardiac care program focused on serving orphaned and abandoned children in the world. This mission of our medical intervention program is to bring life-saving cardiac care to orphaned and impoverished children. Comprised of adoptive parents, medical professionals, and in-country volunteers, we seek to raise awareness of the plight of children born with Congenital Heart Disease, provide education to those caring for these children, and assist in building the infrastructure necessary to provide them with the interventions they need. This work is done by highly skilled cardiac surgeons and cardiologists from the United States who work alongside, and train, cardiac surgeons and cardiologists. Our team of physicians also collaborate to create care plans for children in need residing in orphanages and medical foster homes. Together, we are saving the lives of orphaned children while simultaneously advancing orphan care through training the latest techniques in open heart surgeries and interventional heart catheterization procedures. Our administrators in the U.S. and abroad work hand in hand with the governing bodies, orphanages, adoption agencies, and medical foster homes to promote education in the field of cardiac care.
THE HISTORY OF LHM:
Little Hearts Medical started when the Lee family from Washington state saw the need among critically ill orphaned children living at Little Flower Foster Home in Beijing, China. The family has two biological children and four adopted children from China, including three who suffer from Congenital Heart Disease. These three children were unable to receive care in China, but received life-saving cardiac care upon their arrival in the US.
In 2012, the Lee family traveled to China to bring home their youngest child … Jian Jun, a little boy who was in Hospice care at Little Flower Foster Home. During their adoption trip to China, they met a talented heart surgeon at BaYi Children’s Hospital in Beijing who had cared for Jian Jun, but couldn’t repair his heart. He expressed a desire to meet the Lee’s doctors in the US and learn from them.
The family introduced this surgeon to their U.S. doctors, Dr. Stephen Langley, Director of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery and Dr. Laurie Armsby, Pediatric Cardiologist, both of whom worked at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon at the time.
Dr. Langley, Dr. Armsby and a team of medical professionals first traveled to China in October and November 2012, and then again in February 2013. During those trips, they worked with Chinese doctors to provide free care to orphans while laying the foundation for a promising collaborative relationship. Little Hearts Medical has since made several return trips to China where the organization has continued to expand its mission with the help of the China Center for Child Welfare and Adoption, Civil Affairs, medical foster homes including Little Flowers Project, and the Holt International China Foundation.
In 2020 and beyond, Open Hearts for Orphans will carry on the great foundational work started by Little Hearts Medical, partnering with medical professionals across the United States, as well as leading healthcare institutions abroad to provide free, complex cardiac care to the world’s neediest children.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ann Bartlinski
Director of Medical Intervention Programs
Ann Bartlinski
Director of Medical Intervention Programs
Ann is the mother of eleven children, seven of whom were adopted from China, plus she has three grandchildren.
Ann has spent the past ten years advocating for orphans in China. After the death of her daughter Teresa in 2013, Ann joined Little Hearts Medical, and will now serve as the head of this important work through Open Hearts for Orphans. It is Ann's vision to provide medical care and early intervention for orphaned and abandoned children born with severe cardiac disease.
OUR DOCS
STEPHEN LANGLEY, MBBS, MD, FRCS (CTH), FETCS
STEPHEN LANGLEY, MBBS, MD, FRCS (CTH), FETCS
Surgical Director, Little Hearts Medical
Current Position:
Chief of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa, FL
Clinical professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Education:
Dr. Langley received his medical degree from London University and underwent cardiac surgical training in Cambridge and Southampton, UK. After undertaking pediatric cardiac surgical fellowships at Great Ormond St. Hospital and Birmingham Children's Hospital, in 2002 he became an attending cardiac surgeon at Southampton University Hospital. He moved to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and became the Chief of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery at Oregon Health and Science University. In 2015 he moved to Tampa, FL to take up his current position.
Laurie Armsby, M.D.,
Laurie Armsby, M.D.,
Medical Director, Little Hearts Medical
Current Position:
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Interim Division Head, Pediatric Cardiology
Director, Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship
Oregon Health and Sciences University/Doernbecher Children's Hospital
Education:
B.S. University of California San Diego, 1989
M.D. Stanford University School of Medicine, 1994
Residency:
Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard University, 1997
Chief resident in Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard University, 1998
Fellowship:
Pediatric Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard University, 2001
Interventional Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard University, 2002
Certification:
American Board of Pediatrics, 1997
American Board of Pediatric Cardiology, 2004