CHENNAI: The lead character of the animated movie Klaus says: “A true act of goodwill always sparks another,” which is illustrated in this simple- yet-beautiful case. The news of a two-year-old kid in Chennai getting the medicine for her epilepsy condition from Bengaluru with the help of social media a week ago, has hit us once again with a sweet follow-up with humanity taking turns to be benevolent.
Another man in Chennai, after the previous week’s incident, who found himself in a similar situation, volunteered to give two strips of the same medicine, Sabril Vigabatrin, to a family in need in Bengaluru. Hydroxychloroquine is not the wonder drug yet as Donald Trump claims it to be, but, the drug exchanged here, is safe to assume, to have worked wonders for the people, who needed it for their children. The same medicine was also given to few other families that needed it over the last two days through volunteers.
Disability rights activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar was one of the key people who facilitated the procurement and distribution of the medicine. After she came across the case of the two-year-old kid in Chennai, she looked up for similar requests for the same medicine on social media and created a list of people who needed it. Sabril Vigabatrin is an important medicine that no firm in India has the legal right to distribute within the country. “I got in touch with Pandu Ranga Rao, former chief commissioner of excise department, to get the import data of these medicine, so that we could get in touch with the pharmacy. He immediately got in touch with his colleague. Besides the details of it, he also arranged two strips of the tablet with the help of Chief Commissioner of Customs, V Seshagiri Rao," said Vaishnavi
P Arjun from Chennai who was in desperate need of the tablets for his 18-month-old baby immediately picked up the tablets on Thursday. He was also promised two more strips. But, when he got a call to pick up two more strips on Friday, he decided to give the tablets to other families in need. “I had enough tablets for 10 days and I was connected with other families in need of them through a Whatsapp group that Vaishnavi created. There was one Mahendra Singh in Bengaluru who had only two tablets. So, we wanted to give it to his child,” said Arjun.
Incidentally, Mahendra Singh had put up a request for the tablets on Twitter after reading a story published by Express. But, for the medicines to reach Bengaluru, someone had to pick it up from the Customs Office and post them. That was when Tamil Nadu Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Johny Tom Varghese, chipped in and volunteered to pick up and post the medicines himself. “The post office people were kind and the postal officer Akhil ensured that the medicines reached Bengaluru by Saturday,” Johny said.
Mahendra, whose three-year-old kid was barely taking the medicines by then due to the shortage, burst into tears when he finally received the medicines. “Living in fear that your child might suffer a seizure and you cannot do anything about it is a nightmare. I’m at loss of words and its great to see top officials taking up this issue personally and volunteering to help,” he said. Meanwhile, senior IPS officer Arun Bothra from Odisha, who helped the two-year-old in Chennai with procuring the medicine, arranged for three more strips of it via Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram and Apollo Pharmacy's efforts and posted it to Hyderabad and Chennai.“What is remarkable is that government officials individually going out of their way to do such incredible things. We are in talks with a few firms and government officials to ensure that there is a provider of the medicine Sabril Vigabatrin in bulk,” said Vaishnavi.
In Demand
Sabril Vigabatrin is an important medicine to treat epilepsy that no firm in India has the legal right to distribute within the countryIn social media, there are requests from all over the country for the drug
Recently, it was delivered to a two-year-old boy in Chennai from Bengaluru with the help of social media