Indian surgeons to mend 70 young Pakistani hearts
18 September, 2005
MUMBAI, September 19 (Online): Despite occasional hiccups in their diplomatic rapprochement, the arrival of 70 poor Pakistani children here later this month for heart treatment is indicative of how common people on both sides are contributing to the growing peace dividend between the two countries.
These young heart patients, who will be operated upon by two surgeons and a cardiologist at the privately owned Nanavati Hospital, belong to poor families in Pakistan who cannot afford to fly to India for treatment.
The children - aged between five and 10 years - have been divided into four batches of 15-20 each. The first batch is expected to arrive by this month-end or by Oct 15.
The Pune-based philanthropic body Sadhu Vaswani Mission (SVM) has initiated the project in association with the Karachi-based Sindh Graduates Association. The mission has allotted Rs. 150,000 per child, which would include hospital charges, travel fare and three weeks' stay for the child and the parents. The hospital too has considerably reduced its charges from over Rs. 200,000 to around Rs. 110,000 for such operations.
"The hospital will take care of a bit of their expenditure. They are all suffering from various forms of heart ailments," said Nand Kumar, one of the cardiac surgeons with Nanavati Hospital who will be operating on the children.
"We have already done a preliminary check-up of the children in Karachi," Kumar told IANS.
Kumar, along with fellow cardiac surgeon Ashok Hishikar and cardiologist Jaipal Jadwani, visited Karachi Aug 26 and decided on the list of children who would visit India.
"We have our roots in Pakistan. We hope the relations between our two countries grow stronger by the day," said Ram Mirchandani, a spokesperson and trustee with SVM.
SVM was first established in Hyderabad in Pakistan in 1933 and shifted to Pune after the 1947 partition of the subcontinent.
"We hope to carry similar missions very often in the future. But it would depend on how successful this one turns out to be," Mirchandani said. These children are following the footsteps of Noor Fatima, a 30-month-old Pakistani girl who traveled by bus to India in July 2003 and underwent heart surgery at the Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bangalore.
Her stay in India was marked by a groundswell of public sympathy for her treatment. For millions of ordinary Indians and Pakistanis she became a symbol of the growing bonhomie and warmth between the once warring nations.
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