Boy has oral surgery in run-up to heart procedure

Three year-old Bunlak Song is comforted by his sister, Bunkek Song, after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport of Cambodia on March 6, 2011. Bunlak Song was brought to the United States by Hearts Without Boundaries, a Long Beach, Calif.-based non-profit group, to help repair his heart. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)

09/06/2011
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LOS ANGELES - Bunlak Song, an impoverished Cambodian boy in the United States for life-saving heart surgery, was "a little cranky" but otherwise in good health after oral surgery in advance of the heart procedure.

Bunlak had four teeth extracted and several teeth filled Tuesday at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The boy needed the dental procedures done before the heart operation to guard against infection from his teeth affecting the heart.

Peter Chhun, whose Long Beach nonprofit Hearts Without Boundaries is sponsoring the 3-year-old boy, said the dental work went well and Bunlak remains on schedule for a Sept. 23 heart operation.

The boy suffers from a hole in his heart called a ventricular septal defect, as well as several less severe heart defects. Because the boy can't receive the needed surgery in his home country, the nonprofit brought him to the United States for surgery.

Here, the defect would typically be fixed in the first year of a child's life. Because Bunlak hasn't had treatment, his lungs have been damaged and he is a high-risk patient.

Without surgery, his lungs would become irreparably damaged and he would likely live a life of declining health and die prematurely.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562- 499-1291