Crowd-funding pumps in money for heart transplant in Bengaluru Thirty young Bengali men, mostly alumni of a Ramakrishna Mission school and living in different parts of the world, joined forces to save heart patient Bera from Kolkata. Parthav Pratim Adikari, who works with a defence unit in Bengaluru, got a call from the mission in July 2014 that Poltu needed treatment in Bengaluru. By the year-end, Parthav and friends collected Rs 6 lakh for the medical expenses. And a fortnight ago, Poltu underwent a heart transplant at BGS Global Hospital. The story starts with Debashish Maharaj, a monk from the Ramakrishna Mission in Kolkata, calling Parthav if anything could be done to help Poltu, a goldsmith. He was brought to Bengaluru, put up in a house in Kadugodi and taken to BGS Global Hospital in July 2014. Poltus blood group matched that of a young man who met with a road accident on January 1 and was declared brain dead. On January 3, with the consent of the donors family, a team of cardiologists from BGS Global Hospital went to MS Ramaiah Hospital where the patients heart was harvested. The heart reached BGS Hospital in south Bengaluru from MS Ramaiah Hospital in the northern part of the city in just 20 minutes, through the 24-km green corridor created by traffic police. In July 2014, the pressure in Poltus lungs was high and he wasnt fit for transplant. He came back in November, deemed ready for surgery and registered for a transplant with the Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka. In January, we found a brain-dead patients heart which was suitable, said Dr Anand Subrahmanyam, senior cardiac surgeon, whose team did the transplant. It was crowdfunding initiative which made the surgery possible. We were inspired by Swami Vivekananda during our schooling at the Ramakrishna Mission. Over 15 of those who chipped in for Poltus treatment studied here. Poltu still requires a lot of money for the immune suppressants hell have to take throughout his life. Itll be a few months before he gets back to work, said Parthav. Sandip Nanda, a senior manager at a private firm in Bengaluru, who also contributed for the surgery, says he used Facebook and other social networking sites to raise funds. Dr Venkataramana NK, vice-chairman, BGS Global Hospital said the transplant was subsidized given his financial constraints. Poltu is the sole breadwinner of the family. His wife Basonti Bera, and their 2-year-old child are looking forward to his recovery. I got a second chance to live because of so many people. I thank all of them, said Poltu, who is able to climb stairs within 15 days of the transplant. Hes due to return to Kolkata in a couple of months. timesofindia.indiatimes/city/bengaluru/Crowd-funding-pumps-in-money-for-heart-transplant-in-Bengaluru/articleshow/45959041.cms
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:16:48 +0000
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