In rural and remote Indigenous communities throughout Australia, and particularly in the Northern Territory, it is not uncommon to see children as young as seven carrying the long scars of open-heart surgery running vertically down their chest. Melissa Davey describes what she saw on a trip to the Tiwi Islands and what needs to be done to stop children from needing the invasive operation • ‘I’m too young to die’: the disease forcing Indigenous children to have open heart surgery