Date:25/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/11/25/stories/2004112502800500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Seven-year-old gets a new lease of life

By Dennis Marcus Mathew

Osmania General Hospital cardiothoracic surgeon V. Markendeya Sharma examining Hina at the hospital in Hyderabad on Wednesday. Swathi, who is waiting for surgery, looks on. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD, NOV. 24. When seven-year-old Hina Begum was admitted to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in October, she could hardly speak with a continuous cough troubling her. A recurring fever meant she could not play like her peers as well. But on Wednesday, she was wielding a belt and playfully ordering nurses about.

Recuperating after a surgery to rectify a hole in her little heart, Hina is one of the 25 children operated for congenital heart defects (CHD) by the OGH cardiothoracic surgeon, V. Markendeya Sharma, and his team in the last two months. Many of these children have stories similar to what Hina's father, Mansoor Ali, a tailor from Achampet in Mahbubnagar district, tells us.

Second case in family

Ali and wife Sabera Begum were worried after Hina was regularly ill. With symptoms akin to those showed by their first daughter, Reshu, who had died aged just one, the couple ran from doctor to doctor in Mahbubnagar before coming to know about the CHD from Niloufer Hospital in Hyderabad. A visit to a corporate hospital did not help, as they were reportedly told that Rs. 70,000 was required apart from the Government help. Reports on the child's condition in a Telugu TV channel and two vernacular dailies evoked no response.

A friend then directed Ali to OGH, where food and shelter are taken care of by Korea-based Mil Al Heart Foundation while Hina's surgery was done free of cost by OGH.

Swathi, daughter of Devender, a barber from Nalgonda, will have a similar story to narrate two weeks later. Waiting to be operated for an arterial septum defect, Swathi celebrated her seventh birthday at the hospital on Tuesday, but since she weighs just 14 kg, she has to wait for a couple of weeks for surgery.

Her mother, Chandrika, says though the child has been suffering from palpitations and recurrent fever for the last four years, the defect was identified only a month ago.

Problems aplenty

There are seven such cases scheduled for surgeries in the next two weeks at OGH, while more keep pouring in. Though the hospital is going about its job silently, without trumpeting each surgery like its corporate counterparts, problems are galore. Apart from a severe shortage of staff, there is only one special monitor to keep a watch on the heartbeat, blood pressure and other aspects of children in the post-operative ward. The lack of several other equipments, including ventilators, means that complicated cases cannot be operated upon.

Though cardiac cells have been set up and the Government repeatedly brags about the release of Rs. 8 crores, the money has not reached the hospitals and shortage of staff and equipment has not been addressed so far.