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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Strangers turn saviours for this Lucknow baby

Strangers turn saviours for this Lucknow baby

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published Published on Apr 4, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 4, 2013
-The Times of India


LUCKNOW: As a weaver at a small zardozi unit in Sheesh Mahal area, Aftab Husain barely managed to make Rs 100 per day. Already struggling to make ends meet, Husain got the shock of his life when doctors at King George Medical College, Lucknow, found that his newborn daughter was suffering from total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), a rare congenital heart ailment often referred to as 'hole in the heart'.

In TAPVC, the veins from the lungs attach to the heart in abnormal positions and oxygenated blood leaks into the wrong chamber. Husain was told his daughter, Wajiha Fatima, urgently required a corrective surgery which alone would cost around Rs 2.5 lakh, excluding hospital expenses and post-operative care. Also, she would have to be taken to Delhi or Mumbai for it.

As the infant turned two months old and the father ran out of options, local Urdu journalist and social activist Syed Husain Afsar came to know of the baby's illness last week. He decided to put the information on Facebook. To lend credibility, he also scanned and uploaded all her test reports and doctors' prescriptions along with the phone numbers of the parents.

The response overwhelmed the weaver. "While I was aware of Facebook's potential for mobilising and marketing, posts like this are so common and so widely distrusted that I only expected a small contribution from family and friends," says Afsar.

Apart from immense local support, financial help also came from as far as Houston, Kuwait and Canada. News then reached Mumbai where Zoom channel employee Faqhrul Husaini saw the Facebook post and informed philanthropist Shiva Menon, who quickly called the entire family over to Mumbai on March 31 and convinced of the genuineness of the case decided to bear the entire cost of the surgery.

Wajiha was subsequently admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and underwent a five-hour successful surgery on Tuesday. The hospital waived off Rs 1 lakh additional charges for medical tests and hospitalisation. "Wajiha was operated upon by a team headed by a top surgeon from Bangkok. She has responded well and her condition is stable. She will be under observation for the next 48 hours," her aunt Saleha told TOI over phone from Mumbai.

Wajiha will be in the Mumbai hospital for a month and will have to visit it once a year till she attains six years. Post-operative expenses and visits to doctors remain, but the multiplying reposts on Facebook have continued to elicit contributions for the little girl.


The Times of India, 4 April, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Strangers-turn-saviours-for-this-Lucknow-baby/articleshow/19372331.cms


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