Sanjeev Sri

“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)