New Delhi: But for Narayana Health’s timely act of compassion, 17 year old girl Anshu’s life might still be hanging by a thread. The worst was averted by the earnest response from the hospital group.
Just as the plight of the hapless girl suffering from life threatening hole in the heart came to light, express instruction from top percolated down to address it immediately.
The parents of Anshu Mahto from Lakhisarai in Bihar had 4 month’s anxious wait for some saviour for her daughter’s rescue outside All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Her father being a construction worker, he could not deposit Rs 60, 000 in the apex govt hospital for the surgery. The pollution had made her condition worse.
Narayana Hospital in Gurgaon not only did the complex surgery on her, it also provided free accommodation to the family for a month. Dr Rachit Saxena, cardiac surgeon at Narayana Hospital and his team operated upon the girl. Dr Rohit says, ‘Her congenital heart conditions constituted a high risk surgery and complicated one. It is evidenced by the fact that it took 10 hours complete the surgery. The blood supply to the lungs being totally disrupted, we had to recreate absent from birth structures like pulmonary artery and pulmonary and then close the hole. It was sheer luck that she lived for the last 17 years. But for the surgery, she might have succumbed to the hole soon.
With the condition, her life was a veritable drag on her. Continuing her study was a tortuous journey. While going for tuitions the 11 class girl had to stop after every few steps. Her eyes used to turn red and whole body would hurt. After surgery, Anshu’s agonising condition is gone. She walks easily now, swelling at legs have disappeared. The treatment has really turned her a new leaf.
Her father felt indebted to Narayana Hospital. Commander Navneet Bali, Regional Director for North India, Narayana Health said, ‘It is culture with us to come to the rescue such needy patients. We have a clear mandate from our founder Dr Devi Shetty who started the hospital with a vision of providing affordable healthcare to the masses and for people in the society who are unable to get these themselves.’
Commander Bali further said, ‘Just as my group CEO Dr Immanuel Rupert saw this clipping on a TV report, I got a message from him that there is a family that has been lying outside AIIMS for four months and needed a surgery. A complex surgery like this which lasted 10 hours would have cost around Rs 4-5 lakh in a private hospital but we did it for free because of our ethos and what we stand for.’
