HYDERABAD:Six youngsters belonging to families of farmers, who survived suicide attempts with serious health problems, were given a new lease of life by the doctors at Osmania General Hospital (OGH).
The farmers and farm labourers, who went through the traumatic experience were rescued through tracheal reconstruction surgery (TCS).
The survivors were either farmers or farm labourers, who attempted suicide by consuming pesticide during the past 12 months, due to various reasons ranging from mounting debts to distressful situations.
“My husband owned a half acre land but he sold it. I eked out a living be working as a farm labourer. But we landed in a dire situation and my husband’s sisters used to beat me up. They forced me to consume pesticide,” said Gudepu Lalitha, a 28-year-old farm labourer from Palgutta village near Chevella.
“When I was battling for life it was doctors at Osmania Hospital who saved me, when all other hospitals refused to admit me they came to my rescue,” said Lalitha in a thankful tone.
While all the six members have returned life and are ready to get back to their routine, it was not an easy task for OGH doctors to bring them back to life owing to the complex nature of the surgery and patients’ poor background.
The tracheal reconstruction surgery costs around Rs 2 to 3 lakhs and a patient needs to be implanted with a stent which costs about Rs 80,000 in the neck.
“The only way to bring them back to normalcy was TCS. But an expensive stent has to be implanted in airway. As these patients were unable to afford, we scouted for funds ourselves,” said Dr Srinivas.
Thanks to the proactive approach of Osmania GH doctors, Helping Hands Foundation (HHF), a voluntary organisation engaged in providing financial aid for poor people during medical emergencies, chipped in by taking up a fund raising campaign.
A team of doctors, comprising of DR CG Raghuram, head of Anaesthesia, who is also OGH superintendent, Dr Ranganadh Swamy head of ENT department, among others performed the surgery on September 23.