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In the coming years, I became a medical student.
后來幾年，我去了醫學院讀書。
One of every hundred children born worldwide has some kind of heart disease.
我得知，世界上每一百個新生兒中就會有一個患有某種心臟疾病。
There's a part of this problem I think I can solve -- the part of this problem I have spent my life working on.
我認為這是個我有能力去幫助治愈的疾病--事實上，我一生都致力于這項研究。
The problem starts during pregnancy.
這個疾病產生于懷孕期間。
The fetus needs to survive inside the mother. Survival depends on communication between the systemic and the pulmonary blood.
胎兒是否能夠在母親腹中存活，取決于血液在體循環與肺循環間的交換。
At the moment of birth, this communication needs to stop.
胎兒出生時，這一交換必須停止。
If it doesn't close, the baby has a hole in the heart. It is caused by prematurity and genetic conditions.
如果未能停止，嬰兒就會出現先天性心臟缺損。這個問題多由早產及遺傳因素引發。
But what we know today is that a lack of oxygen is also one of the causes.
但如今我們發現，缺氧也會引發這一疾病。
As you can see in the chart, the frequency of this kind of hole dramatically increases with altitude.
在圖中可以看到，隨著海拔的增高，這種病出現的頻率也大幅增加。
When you look at patients with this condition, they seem desperate to breathe.
先天性心臟缺損的患者難以正常呼吸。
To close the hole, major surgery used to be the only solution.
過去，我們只能通過大手術來修復這一缺損。
