The idea originated in 1988, when Harriet Hodges, founder of a voluntary organization called Save the Hearts, asked Dr. [Amram Cohen] - then serving in the US military in Seoul, Korea - if he would operate on some of the children in her program. Hodges was committed to sending 300 poor South Korean children to Western countries for treatment; since her budget was limited, she sent the children to the medical centers with the most reasonable price. Cohen, who was chief of pediatric surgery at the prestigious Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and on a tour of duty in Korea, agreed and performed 35 such operations in Seoul. Bitten by the bug of helping the helpless, Cohen decided to launch his own program when he came on aliya in 1992 and was hired to head the Wolfson pediatric cardiac surgery unit.

Cohen managed to persuade the management of Wolfson - a government hospital headed by Dr. Moshe Mashiah - to agree to the project; since the operations are performed by doctors and nurses in the late afternoons and evenings on their own time, the program doesn't come at the expense of Wolfson's regular patients. The other volunteer personnel include Dr. Lior Sasson (a surgeon who will soon be sent to California for a year for formal studies in pediatric cardiac surgery - the volume of cases there is large enough to provide expertise in all the various types of operations); pediatric cardiologist Dr.

In order to choose candidates for surgery, Cohen and some of his colleagues travel to the country where the children live once or twice a year. They and local doctors examine them and the most suitable ones are chosen to come to Israel. Groups of youngsters are arranged so that older children are matched with younger ones during the flight. Met at the airport by Save a Child personnel who speak their language, they are taken to a residence not far from the Holon hospital and supervised by adults as they adjust to Israeli time. After the surgery, they are cared for in intensive care until they are well enough to be moved to the regular pediatric department and from there to the residence to complete their recovery. Three weeks later, they fly home, better than new, and are met with local doctors who ensure proper follow-up.