The Hindu : Lump gone, he's now in good heart

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Lump gone, he's now in good heart

By T. Lalith Singh

HYDERABAD June 6. The tumour kept accumulating mass and left little space for any hope in the heart. The 19-year-old lost appetite, could hardly eat, was visited with recurrent fever and complained of uneasiness in heart. Adding to the woes, his poverty stricken parents had no money to take him to a doctor.

That was till a few weeks ago. Now recuperating from a surgery that saw the lump removed from his heart, Karri Gangulu is brimming with joy. And if all goes well, the unlettered son of a mason from Gallapalli village near Pravathipuram in Vizianagaram district will get an opportunity to narrate his recovery to the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, tomorrow.

Karri Balaiah, the teenager's father, couldn't stop thanking the Care Hospital for the gesture. Images of his son's suffering remain etched in his mind. "All I could do was helplessly watch him writhe in pain.''

The diagnosis showed a tumour growing in the right atrium. "A doctor asked us Rs. 60,000 for surgery, but we were not having even Rs. 60 with us,'' says his father.

The suffering continued till Gangulu came in contact with the Care Hospital doctors. He was examined by the hospital Chairman, B. Somaraju, at Visakhapatnam and was asked to report at Hyderabad for surgery.

Gangulu's mother, Narsamma, says, as they had no money even for the train fare, they were provided with Rs. 500. The poor parents, who eke out livelihood by daily wages, saw their son operated on May 28 and slowly recuperating since then. All free of cost. "I don't know how to repay for all these,'' Narsamma says.

The cardiac surgeons' team of G. Ramasubrahmanyam and G. Nagasaina Rao, performed the surgery and removed the tumoor that measured 7 cm in length and 6 cm in breadth. "The right atrium was filled with the mass and if left unattended would have proved fatal,'' says Dr. Rao. The tumour size, he says, was rare and much larger than what usually was found in such cases.

According to Arun Tiwari of the Care Foundation, the boy would be meeting the President during his visit to the city on Saturday. "Gangulu will get an opportunity to tell the President about his ailment, his poverty and how his life was saved,'' says the co-author of President Kalam's auto-biography, `Wings of Fire'.

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Lump gone, he's now in good heart