The Hindu : Kalam lends a helping hand to sick child

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 25, 2003

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National

Kalam lends a helping hand to sick child

By T. Lalith Singh

Bhoru in his mother's lap at the Care Hospital in Hyderabad on Thursday. — Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

HYDERABAD July 24. The failing heartbeats of a child born to a poor family in Mumbai found a rhythm of empathy at Rashtrapathi Bhavan. The child has ended up in Hyderabad for a surgery initiated at the behest of the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Born with a congenital defect, 11-month-old Bholu Gupta needed a costly surgery to plug a hole in his heart. The child's father, Anil Gupta, pedals a rickshaw in Vasai, Mumbai, and could never have raised the few lakhs the surgery was estimated to cost.

Fortune smiled on the crestfallen family when Rajendra, a resident of Andheri, chanced upon the child recently. While searching for a hospital that would take up Bholu's surgery free of cost, he faxed a letter to Mr. Kalam describing the child's plight.

The President promptly referred Bholu's case to the well-known cardiologist, B. Soma Raju, and a former colleague and co-author of his biography, Wings of Fire, Arun Tiwari, at the Care Hospital here. The Care team brought Bholu from Mumbai today and the hospital authorities said the child would be treated free of cost. ``He is our guest,'' said one of the doctors.

Anita Gupta, rocking a restive Bholu on her lap, said the child was losing weight and was not feeling well. ``I can feel his discomfort,'' the worried mother said.

The Care Foundation chairman, P. Krishnam Raju, said Bholu suffered from `Tricuspid Atresia', a condition caused by missing communication between the heart's chambers, affecting the supply of blood to the lungs. ``It is a complex congenital defect that needs surgical intervention.''

Doctors, who examined the frail child, found him to be malnourished and suggested that the surgery be taken up after the boy gained some weight. ``We will observe him for the next few days and decide on the date,'' said Dr. Raju.

Anita, all her hopes hinged on the men in white examining her son, queries, ``when will my son be alright? He will be fine, won't he?''

She does not know the people who have brought her child so close to a new lease of life. ``Some good Samaritans are helping my Bholu,'' she says with folded hands.

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