A month ago, on a Saturday evening, when Awal and his wife Sumi rushed into the Casualty wing of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) clutching their four-month-old son who was in a moribund state, little did they believe that they would be able to hold his warm body in their arms again.
Awal’s story is one of enduring hope and the courage of conviction, which made him travel all the way from Chatiain in Bangladesh’s Habiganj district to Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram with his wife and very sick baby, Awal Mohammed Ayan.
Baby Ayan had a congenital heart defect that results in the transposition of the great arteries, a common but dangerous condition in which the large vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs, and to the body, are ‘switched’.
“Ayan would cry incessantly and turn blue and breathless. Doctors in Dhaka told us that he had a critical problem and had little chance [of survival], unless we wanted to try our luck in India,” says Awal.
Awal had left his small-time job in Maldives to take care of his baby, who had arrived after seven years of marriage.
“I frantically enquired in many private hospitals in New Delhi and they all quoted ₹8-12 lakh for the surgery,” says Awal.
It was at this time that one of his co-workers in Maldives, a Keralite, told him about SCTIMST. He made enquires to find the surgery could be done for less than ₹3 lakh.
“I managed to collect ₹3.5 lakh with the help of my friends. I could not get a doctor’s referral letter to SCTIMST but we somehow managed to reach Kerala and barged into SCTIMST. Ayan’s condition was poor and my wife was crying,” Awal recalls.
“It had been a hard weekend and I was about to leave the hospital when I was called to the Casualty Ward,” says Baiju S. Dharan, Professor, Congenital Heart Surgery division, SCTIMST.
“There was no time to ask about referral letters or find out whether they had the capacity to pay for surgery because the baby was dying. The infant was admitted straightaway, put on the ventilator, and we performed a single stage emergency arterial switch within three hours of admission. Ayan will be alright; they will need to bring him for yearly reviews.”
The hospital bill came to ₹2.52 lakh. Awal had only ₹2 lakh to pay.
SCTIMST waived the rest of the bill amount so that he would have enough money to fly back home. Awal says that he cannot express his gratitude in words.
“We are overwhelmed by the kindness and regard that the SCTIMST has shown to us, despite knowing that we do not have much money. I owe them my life because they gave me back my Ayan,” he says.
The family goes back to Bangladesh next week.
