Chitra Viswanathan lost her second daughter, Aishwarya, to a congenital heart defect at the age of three-and-a-half. In the last four years, she along with many others have raised funds to enable 55 children from various parts of the country undergo heart transplants in the city.
Aishwarya Trust, a not-for-profit organisation founded in memory of her daughter 10 years ago, has so far supported around 2,000 children with congenital heart diseases.
The trust, along with Fortis Malar Hospital, has been screening children and funding cardiac corrective surgeries and heart transplants of underprivileged children.
It was a mother’s dream to help parents of children suffering from heart ailments, Ms. Viswanathan, trustee of Aishwarya Trust, said. “We want more people to be involved in our movement,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Major causes
With support from the trust, nine-year-old Vedha Vignesh, son of a farmer from Vellore, underwent heart transplant earlier this year. Apart from congenital heart diseases, mycocarditis or severe viral infections affecting the heart muscle and complications from previous cardiac surgeries were the major causes for heart failures in children, said K.R. Balakrishnan, director, Cardiac Sciences and chief cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon, Fortis Malar Hospital.
Suresh Rao K.G., head of department, Cardiac Anaesthesia and Cardiac Critical Care, Fortis Malar, said from 2012 to 2018, the hospital had performed 295 heart transplants, of which 85 were paediatric transplants. Out of this, 55 were funded by the trust.
“As per the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, majority of the children who undergo heart transplants are below the age of one year. Here, majority of the children are aged six to 15 years,” he said.