HeartOur activity in heart-related illness is to provide counselling, help in reducing costs and to actually fund part of the heart operations. We especially expedite neo-natal and paediatric heart operations. Our beneficiaries have been as young as 12 days old to 14 years old. The young children typically have problems such as ASG & VSG (hole in the heart). They require operations that require anything between Rs 60,000/- to 70.000/-. If they belong to BPL card holding families, then they can get a concession of Rs. 15,000/- from some hospitals. These children can also secure around Rs. 5,000/- from the Mayor’s fund. After helping the patients to obtain all the reductions possible, we at PRAY usually sanction around Rs. 5,000 to 10,000 for the operations. But this also falls short of the patients requirements, and we then direct the patients to contact other like-minded organizations for the remaining funds. The older patients typically have blockages in their arteries. They would typically require a heart bypass surgery costing around Rs 1,30,000/- in most hospitals. Once they approach PRAY, we redirect them to Jayadeva institute of cardiology where the costs are typically around Rs 80,000/-. If the patient is a BPL card holder, then the cost further drops to Rs 60,000/- in this hospital. We help the patient secure a BPL card if he/she is eligible for it. They can then avail further assistance from the PM (Rs. 20,000) and CM (Rs 5,000) relief funds. We at PRAY are only able to fund a small portion of the total requirement for a patient, usually around Rs. 5,000/-. Patients also come in for valve replacement, which costs around Rs. 60,000 + the costs of the valve. Here again, we help facilitate the reduction of costs first and then fund around Rs. 10,000/-. But this again falls short of the total requirement of the patient. Till September 2006, we have aided around 500 heart surgeries, spending around Rs. 28 lakhs cumulatively on them. In 2005-06 alone, we have supported around 83 heart operations spending around Rs 6.2 lakhs. But this works out to merely Rs. 7,500 per patient, hardly meeting even 10% of their requirement. We look to your donations to help us increase this activity and help the patients lead a normal life again. To find out how you can do this, please click here.
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