2-month-old heart patient from Pakistan finds hope in India

Humanity knows no boundaries, the old adage came true as parents of a two-month-old Pakistani boy suffering from a serious heart defect, finally found hope in an offer of help by a leading Indian hospital after running from pillar to post.

The parents, who want to immediately rush to New Delhi for the surgery of two-month old Ahmad, have now appealed to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to issue them visas at the earliest.

After the case of Ahmad was highlighted by the Dawn newspaper earlier this month, Ashok Seth, chairman of the cardiology council of India's Fortis Group of Hospitals, expressed the institution's desire to treat the boy irrespective of whether his parents could afford the treatment.

Ahmad, the son of a poor man named Saleem Shahzad of Lahore, is suffering from "ventricular septal defect, arterial septal defect and transposition of great arteries TGA, which means blood vessels that should be on the right side are on the left side and vice versa.

Shahzad told PTI that he had applied for visas but the Indian High Commission had asked him to submit a bank statement and a character certificate.

"We want to go to India as soon as possible to treat my child. I will go to Islamabad on Monday to try and speed up the visa process but I do not know what will happen next," he said.

The leading Indian health institution's offer to treat the boy came after the poor family had been running from pillar to post to raise funds for the expensive surgery.

Shahzad said he had appealed to the officials of Indian mission to issue the visas at the earliest.