One-year-old Noa needs new heart, fundraising effort is on

One-year-old Noa Onaga has never seen the ocean or blue sky.

One-year-old Noa Onaga has never seen the ocean or blue sky.

One-year-old girl, Noa Onaga suffers from severe dilated cardiomyopathy, which was diagnosed when she was just 15 days old and still in a hospital in Kumamoto, which is her mother’s hometown. Her father is from Okinawa.

Noa is kept alive with an assisting mechanical heart, but that carries a high risk of a stoke, and that’s why a heart transplant is necessary.

Noa is kept alive with an assisting mechanical heart, but that carries a high risk of a stoke, and that’s why a heart transplant is necessary.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart condition, in which the heart muscle stretches and thins, and is not able to pump blood as well as a healthy heart. The disease can affect people of all ages. In some cases the condition might not cause symptoms, but in others it could be life-threatening.

Noa has continued the treatment in the hospital, but her condition took a sudden turn for worse in March, and doctors had to fit her with an assisting mechanical heart. According to her doctor, the long-term use of the assisting heart carries a high risk of developing complications like a brain stroke, and it’s necessary for her to get a heart transplant.

So, Noa’s parents, 39-year-old father Tsukasa and 41-year-old mother Ryoko, and their supporters held a press meeting at the Okinawa Prefecture Office Building on Sep. 16, and called for forming a fund to support her heart transplant surgery in the U.S. The estimated cost of the surgery is ¥320 million.

At the meeting, Noa’s father said, “My daughter has never seen neither the sky nor the ocean in Okinawa, only the ceiling of her room in the hospital. We want to take her home to Okinawa. We would like to ask peoples’ support for my daughter.”

The money needed for the surgery has increased significantly due to the current trend of cheaper yen, sharp rise in the required advance payment for the hospital in the U.S. and the need for a chartered flight to transport her.

As of Sep. 25th, donations to the fund amounted to ¥45,999,742 in the accounts. Her supporters have ser up an English language homepage for her at http://noaonaga.com/index_en.php that explains her condition. There’s also a Japanese language facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/noaonaga

Here’s a list of bank accounts that accept donations for the fund:

  • The Bank of Okinawa / Honten (=head branch) / savings account No. 2519389
    • The Bank of the Ryukyus / Honten / savings account No. 1203275
    • Okinawa Kaiho Bank / Honten / saving account No. 0884289
    • Koza Shinkin Bank / Naha branch / saving account / No. 0001312
    • JA Bank / Honten / savings account No. 0025161
    • Okinawa Roudou Ginko / Honten / savings account No. 3419969
    • Mizuho Bank / Naha branch / savings account No. 1868819
    • Japan Post Bank / account No. 17040-14913931

For remittances from overseas banks

  • The Bank of Okinawa Ltd. Branch No.101 HEAD OFFICE, account name Noachanwosukuukai, bank address 1-2-25 (G7 Bld.3kaiB), Kumoji, Naha-shi, Okinawa, Japan, account No. DF-101-1500009, SWIFT code BOKIJPJZ
18:05 19 Mar , 2024