KOCHI:Transporting the donor heart by air from Thiruvananthapuram to Lisie Hospital here with precise timing was not the happy end of a suspense story, in itself.
The cost of the surgery and the other expenses to be paid at the time of discharge from the hospital, and further treatment costs pose a big challenge for the family of Mathew Achadan, the recipient.
Achadan’s relatives paid Rs 6 lakh to the Navy for transporting the heart from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences to Kochi. Meanwhile, residents of the Pariyaram panchayat in Chalakkudy mobilised Rs 10 lakh, which has almost been spent by now.
“The medicines used during the surgery and post-surgery cost Rs 25,000-30,000. He will have to stay in the hospital at least for one month. Doctors at Lisie hospital said Achadan would be given concession. Despite that the hospital bill would be very high. The total cost of the treatment is estimated at more than Rs 50 lakh. We are optimistic that the public would help us.
He will have to continue medicines that would cost around Rs 25,000-30,000 per month. Otherwise, the entire effort would go futile,”
said Daly Varghese, a member of the Pariyaram panchayat who is also a friend of Achadan’s wife Bindu.
The government has allotted Rs 2 lakh for the treatment, from the Karunya Benevolent Fund. Bindu is a tailor, and the couple has two children, a son studying in Class-X and a daughter studying in Class-VI.
The family has five cents of land and a house that was built using fund allotted by the panchayat.