Heart surgery for kids
Pandeeswaran and Subash (right), who underwent heart surgeries under the Little Hearts Project of the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis and G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital.The Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis and the G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital have teamed up to cure young children of congenital heart ailments under the Little Heart Care Project.President of the club and Dean of the hospital Ramkumar Raghupathy said at a function held on Tuesday to highlight the project that free heart screening camps were held under the project to identify children with various defects.The camps were held at No.4 Veerapandi and at the Swamy Dayananda Jayavarthanavelu Tribal Rural Hospital at Anaikatti.Doctors and paramedical staff from the hospital’s departments of cardiology and cardio-thoracic surgery screened 177 children. Of these, 25 were identified for surgery. Surgeons led by Chief Cardio-thoracic Surgeon at the hospital S. Muralidharan performed the surgeries. The Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis contributed Rs.2.25 lakhs towards surgery expenses.
The club has mentioned the cases of two of these children from poor families to highlight the significance of the project.Two-year-old Pandeeswaran, son of a labourer, had been falling sick often with an infection in the respiratory tract.He was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot – a condition caused by four different problems in the heart. The parents did not have the means to pay Rs.85,000 for the surgery.The project helped the child undergo the surgery. He could even go to school next year, the club said in a release.
Three-month-old Subash had a ventricular septal defect (hole in the lower chamber of the heart). His father, Mani, earned only Rs.1,500 a month as a labourer. The child also underwent surgery under the project and was normal now.Chairman of the Bannari Amman Group of Companies S.V. Balasubramaniam, who was the chief guest at the function, commended the club and the hospital for helping poor children through this project. He lamented the low awareness in the rural areas on heart diseases.He also expressed concern over the rising cases of heart diseases in the younger generation and said this would have an impact on the nation’s progress.Dr. Muralidharan emphasised the need to involve in a big way young people in such projects.Head of the Department of Cardiology at the hospital S. Natarajan said better heart care could be brought about only through greater awareness.The doctors and paramedical staff involved in the project were felicitated at the function.
