Chinmayee, a six-year-old girl hailing from Odisha, was detected with a life-threatening congenital heart disease last April.
Manisha Chinmayee, a six-year-old girl hailing from Odisha, was detected with a life-threatening congenital heart disease last April.
She was suffering from Tetralogy of Fallot, a cyanotic congenital heart disease. Manisha’s father Prakash Chandra brought the child to Bangalore for treatment.
At Yashomati Hospital, she was slated to undergo a surgery that would roughly cost Rs1.41 lakh. Coming from a poor agricultural background, it was impossible for the family to arrange for the money, even after the hospital authorities offered a concession of Rs1.08 lakh.
Last week, she got operated and is doing fine now. The struggle for Chandra’s family started early last year when Manisha was detected with cardiological complications. Manisha’s father contacted his brother-in-law in Bangalore and they initially went to Satya Sai Hospital in Whitefield as they could not afford the cost of treatment. Manisha was examined and doctors recommended that surgery must be conducted at the earliest. They wrote a letter stating that due to the urgency and seriousness of the case, the child may have to be taken to another hospital as there is a waiting time at Satya Sai Hospital. Manisha was then taken to Yashomati Hospital.
Dr Sadruddin Shariff and Dr PK Roy, consultant cardiac surgeons, investigated the case and revealed that the child was suffering from Tetralogy of Fallot.
“This involves four heart malformations that occur at the same time. It results in low oxygenation of blood due to the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood (also known as blue baby syndrome). This complication is quite rare in female babies,” Dr Shariff said.
While surgery was advised, due to dearth of funds, the family had to wait. An appeal published in DNA helped raise around `30,000 from readers. The family was able to arrange for another `40,000. Well-wishers from Odisha helped in raising `47,000 and `10,000 was donated by Healing Heart Trust run by Dr Shariff.
The family came back to Bangalore in November 2011.
“Manisha had to wait for eight months before the surgery. We had no other option but to wait and she was put on medication. Finally, the surgery was done last week and all her cardiac defects have been corrected,” said Dr Shariff.
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