RANCHI: In a major relief to 40-year-old Dilip Yadav, his five-and-a-half-years thalassemic son will get free treatment at Aster Hospital in Bangalore.
Thanks to the Bengaluru-based crowdfunding organisation ‘Milaap’ which came forward to help him out after media reports that Yadav travels more than 400 kilometers every month for getting blood transfusion for his son Vivek, who is suffering from thalassemia.
Notably, the report was published prominently in the ‘The Sunday Standard’ highlighting the sufferings of Dilip Yadav, a daily wager in Jharkhand’s Godda district who was forced to travel 400 km on his bicycle every month during the lockdown as he could not afford a taxi for himself. Following the media reports, Pankaj Maharaj, director of Newslions Media, personally travelled to Godda to get into the details of the matter.
“After checking the ground reality and assessing the facts published in media, we decided to help Dilip Yadav to get his son treated free of cost at Aster Hospital in Bangalore. After the assessment, it was found that bone marrow transplant for his son will incur a total cost of Rs 18-20 lakh, which will be crowdfunded through the Milaap platform,” said Maharaj.
Meanwhile, flight tickets for all the six members of Yadav’s family, including his four children, were sent so that they could come to Bengaluru and get their bone marrow tested. Once it gets matched with anyone of them, it will be transplanted on Vivek, he added.
Maharaj said that the media has really done commendable work by bringing the sufferings of Dilip Yadav before society due to which the matter came to the notice of Milaap, a free crowdfunding platform facilitated to start a fundraiser for the treatment.
Milaap, according to Maharaj, is a crowdfunding platform that raises funds online for medical emergencies for the poor and needy and other social causes.
More than 150 people are attached to it, which raises crowdfunding as and when required after a matter is put into the notice of Milaap, he said.
Dilip Yadav reached Bengaluru on July 21 along with his wife Rekha Devi, son Vivek Kumar and three daughters Sugam Kumari, Priya Kumari, and Sumitra Kumari. Their blood samples have been taken and sent for testing, said Yadav.
“I had lost all hope but, after coming into contact with Milaap, but now, I am quite hopeful that my son’s life will be saved. They are doing their best for my child for which, I am grateful to them,” said Yadav. The process of testing is on the following which bone marrow transplant will be done here at Aster Hospital in Bengaluru, he added.
Notably, Yadav has made four trips on his bicycle — once each to Dumka and Deoghar last year and twice to Jamtara this year. Before the pandemic, Vivek was undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where he was being given free blood but he had to return last year due to the lockdown.
Recently, Yadav travelled with his son to Jamtara on May 25 on his bicycle and returned on May 31 after Vivek received two units of blood. In April too, he travelled to Jamtara. It takes him two days to cover 200 km on his bicycle.