Husain, a boy hardly of eight years, was asked to be taken away from the Indo-American Cancer Hospital when he began to have seizures. For, his parents could not afford the expensive treatment for his Leukaemia.
The boy was taken to Gandhi Hospital from where he was referred to the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre. Here, the treatment is absolutely free and efforts are on to put him on the track of recovery.
Lakshman Reddy, a 14-year-old tribal boy from Khammam, was brought to NIMS by the ITDA officials, where he was diagnosed with Leukaemia and referred to MNJ Institute. An orphan, he is now recovering in the Paediatric Oncology Ward, and is known for his erratic behaviour. He smokes, throws tantrums and occasionally refuses to take food and medicines.
Even after the boy has reached the stage of maintenance therapy, he is made to stay as the hospital authorities are unsure if he would return for medicines. Three years ago, such individual concern was absent in the hospital which on a regular basis receives far more patients than it can effectively handle. Right from diagnostics and availability of blood, every dispensation was a problem.
Treatment abandonment rate was very high as parents would not bring the children back either unable to bear the train fare, or due to lack of awareness. Due to this, many children with good scope of recovery too were left to die. Now, thanks to ‘IMPACT' (Improving Access to Care and Treatment), an organisation founded by a group of individuals, no child is allowed to meekly succumb to the dreadful malady. The Treatment Abandonment Rate is brought down from 50 per cent to 10 per cent and the cure rate is expected at 45 per cent as against the earlier five.
Under the initiative, an exclusive 14-bedded paediatric oncology ward was set up in 2008, and extended to 40 beds with support from NATCO.
An Immunohistochemistry Lab was set up with Rs.1 lakh apart from generous donations in kind. IMPACT also supports salaries of a team of six trained nurses, three nursing aids and two counsellors for the ward. Counsellors facilitate everything for the patients, be it doctor's appointment, blood or medicines or recommendation for financial support. The programme involves fundraising to provide medication, blood and transport for poor patients. Deserving special mention is the Paediatric Palliative Care Programme, under which the counsellors keep track of terminally ill children in their homes, and constantly monitor their health through telephone counselling, suggestions or mere verbal support. While NATCO appointed the counsellors, IMPACT pays for transportation and telephone charges.
“IMPACT is born of the need to treat childhood cancer cases separately. The disease behaves differently in a child than it does in an adult. Recovery prospects are more among children. They need specialised intensive treatment which is most often ignored,” says Sudha Sinha, Medical Oncologist at the hospital and one among the key persons in the programme.
Prospective donors may contact the organisation on 9701010591 or impact.child@gmail.com.
