Children with congenital heart diseases get treated free of cost

Tanuja Kadam’s mother is grateful to the benevolence of a Mumbaikar.

Her six-year-old daughter was operated free of cost after Jayendra Jadhav, who belongs to Sindhudurg, took the initiative of gathering information on children with congenital heart diseases in the district.

Tanuja, a resident of Sindhudurg, was suffering from congenital heart disease, but her mother didn’t know how to arrange money for treatment. Tanuja’s father passed away. She has two siblings
and her family has no source of income.

Jadhav is a member of NGO Pratham and it took a year to arrange for the operation of 31 children free of cost. He got the government involved and used their scheme to help children.

“When I met the collector of Sindhudurg for some work, he told me about the many children in the village who were suffering from congenital heart problem,” said Jadhav.

“I went to few hospitals with the cases when Fortis hospital agreed to arrange for a camp in Sindhudurg. They tested 57 children out of whom 31 needed operations. Budget for this would be around Rs 60lakh,” added Jadhav. The camp was held in April 2010.

“Most of these families had a yearly income of Rs10, 000. I met many NGOs and hospitals and they were ready to fund 10-15 % of the cost,” said Jadhav.

Finally, Jadhav was informed about Jeevan Devi Yogna by an officer.

“Children living in the Zilla parishad areas, who are in need of operations, are covered in this scheme,” added Jadhav.

While Tanuja along with six other children were operated on Feb 25, the others will be operated in the coming days at Panvel.

Appreciating Jadhav’s efforts, Vikram Kumar, collector of Sindhudurg said, “Jadhav has been very co-operative and helped the administration to help the children.

He painstakingly collected all the data, organised health camps and ran pillar to post for the operations.

Thanks to him seven children got operated and others will receive help soon.”