Many of us may not be aware of the need for a Pediatric Cardiac Department - that the need for this arises from the fact that nearly two and a half lakh children every year are born affected with congenital heart disease. Of these over 90% of the children belong to lower socio economic strata where ignorance, lack of information & lack of facilities alone claim many lives.

This scenario prompted MIOT Hospitals to establish MIOT Centre for Children's Cardiac Care in March 2007, headed by a group of specialists in neonatal surgery and invasive procedures. 

Within a month of the inception we realized the need to reach out to children in need and to provide them care in an emergency as and when necessary.

Dr. Robert Coelho and his team started off with camps in and out of Chennai and identified children who needed immediate, urgent, emergency care. After having done the first ten surgeries free of cost, MIOT Hospitals realized the need to ensure that more children should at all times receive such care and we should be able to carry forward our mission to provide free heart surgeries for children for years to

come.

CHIME - CHILDREN'S HEART INTERNATIONALE MIOT

In the same year on September 2007 CHIME was born. CHIME began its operation as a Charitable Trust established by MIOT Hospitals to provide funds for free heart surgeries for needy children suffering from congenital and rheumatic heart diseases.

Though MIOT performs several free and subsidized surgeries we realize that we need assistance from other sources to sustain the effort. Thus CHIME was born. CHIME has been launched to build a bridge between you and them.

Soon CHIME organized free camps in and around South India to identify underprivileged children with congenital heart disorders and conditions whereby they are in need of immediate or imminent heart surgeries.

CHIME also organizes Free Heart Camps at MIOT Hospitals once a year on Children's Day when children can walk in and take advantage of a free check up, investigations and perhaps even extend to have free treatment depending on their socio-economic status. CHIME reaches out to different districts to conduct camps to identify children, dispel fears and superstitions and pave the way to a healthy life for future generations.