2018

“Your mother says you are nine years old and you are in Grade 6? Are you sure?” The small girl looks at us and says emphatically, “I am in Grade 6” and as if to double check, counts her Grade on her fingers.  Her uncle and mother pull out some identity documents from a small worn out bag and give these to us. The papers place Madhumathi’s age at 11. The lack of clarity about the girl’s age is not uncommon in rural India where poverty and low education levels mean that awareness about going to a hospital to deliver a baby or even registering the birth is still not high. 

In January 2018 Madhumathi travelled to  Chennai with her mother from their village close to the temple town of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to undergo a major open heart surgery that doctors are confident will allow Madhumathi see adulthood. Despite her frail appearance, Madhumathi’s eyes shine with curiosity and life. The middle of three children, Madhumathi is in the 6th Grade and though frail, looks like any other teenager. However, simple every day activities like running on the playground were not easy for her as she immediately felt breathless. Diagnosed with a defect in the lower chamber, her heart was unable to pump blood efficiently and the low oxygen levels manifested in the clubbing of her fingers and the bluish tint of her skin. 

“She is enrolled in school but misses classes because of her health but her teachers are kind,” says her mother, Mangamma. Despite their poverty, the girl’s parents put together the funds needed for a surgery. However, the surgery did not correct the problem and they were referred for a second surgery to a private hospital in Chennai, which had an excellent team of cardiologists.

The second surgery, a palliative procedure called Fontan, though cost money, which the parents did not have. Her father drives an auto for a living and her mother is a homemaker. Yet, they were determined to seek help for their daughter. The doctors in Chennai requested Hope Unlimited to meet the family. Madhumathi’s case fit the criteria of Hope Unlimited to support cost of surgery for girls under age 15 with congenital heart disease. The Trust shared the costs of the surgery with another Foundation in Chennai. Though now she is weak post the surgery, Madhumathi cannot wait to go home and eat her favourite food: chicken cooked by her mother! The girl, who is recovering well, wants to become a doctor when she grows up.

(January 2018)

“She is not in pain now, she just wants to go home,” said Latha, mother of Sanjeev Sree. 

The 3.5-year-old girl has just had an open heart surgery to close a hole in the wall separating the two lower chambers of the heart. The six inch still raw vertical gash on her bony chest indicated the surgery three days earlier but the spirited girl was making enough petulant noises to indicate that being confined to a hospital bed and getting poked with injections for a week or so was certainly not her idea of fun.  We ask her if we can take her photo but Sanjeev just gives us an annoyed look! “She has, in fact, been quite rude to the nurses coming to give her an injection, pushing them away!” says her mother. Thankfully, given that she is recovering well with no postoperative complications, the doctors have decided Sanjeev Sree can go home that day. 

The girl was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect in the heart when she was aged two. “She would get breathless easily and had poor appetite. She would hardly eat anything. We took her to the doctor who told us she had a problem in her heart and needed a surgery,” said Satyaraj, Sanjeev’s father. Satyaraj has a diploma in civil engineering but has been without work for over a year. Earlier, he had worked with a construction firm. His wife Latha is a homemaker. The couple has a seven-year-old son but Sanjeev Sree is clearly the spoiled child at home.  “She is very naughty. Because of her condition, we do indulge her a bit, “ admits her mother.

Once they knew their daughter could lead a normal life if she had the surgery, the indigent parents, who live in a town near Vellore in Tamil Nadu, frantically sought help.  A grant from the State was helpful but not enough to cover the costs of surgery in a private hospital. Hope Unlimited donated the rest enabling the surgery to go ahead. 

The relieved parents are now looking forward to the next phase in their daughter’s life. Latha said: “We were very worried earlier whether Sanjeev can ever go to school. Now the doctors have given us hope that she can. She is fine.”

(July 2018)