1.5-yr-old with heart defect gets new lease of life

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, October 14

It was a heart-warming experience for Muzaffarpur-based labourer Ram Babu and his family. Began as a long nightmare after his son Rohan was diagnosed with a heart defect at birth, it became a memorable anecdote when Jalandhar’s soil conservation officer and members of Rotary Club of Goraya Midtown volunteered to set Rohan’s heart ticking healthily again.

It all began in 2018 when Anita gave birth to Rohan. She said the moments of welcoming their first baby was not over yet, while his baby boy started falling ill often. 

“He was just three-month-old when he started losing weight rapidly. His nail and tongue turned blue and he used to get exhausted with slightest physical movement or while taking breastfeed,” said Anita. She added that when Rohan turned five-month-old, doctors in Muzaffarpur told them that their newborn had a heart defect. 

“We were shattered by the news as we had no money for his surgery and we thought we would lose him,” Anita broke down while narrating her ordeal over telephone. She said it was her parents in Jalandhar who forced her to bring Rohan here for treatment.

Anita said after having struggled a lot to look for help, she finally met Soil Conservation Officer Lupinder Kumar and members of Rotary Club of Goraya Midtown who entered Rohan’s life as angels and he was successfully operated upon at the National Heart Institute in Delhi in June this year.

Like Rohan, nearly 17 children suffering from Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) have been treated free of cost by Rotary Club as well Lupinder Kumar in the past two years. The cost of surgery and other expenses, including travel, accommodation and tickets, have solely been borne by Lupinder Kumar and other club members from their own pocket.

Talking about another such case of Sunny Kumar (8), Lupinder said he got to know about him after he visited the government school in Chachrari for some awareness programme. 

“The child was facing a tough time. After speaking for a few minutes, he used to get breathless. Despite being good at studies, he wasn’t able to concentrate. His father was so poor that getting a surgery done was unimaginable for him,” he said.

 “Humanity is alive. We cannot close our eyes and see a child dying because of some funds. Cases of Rohan and Sunny were complicated and thus, it took almost a year to get the date of surgery fixed. The poor family just needed some help. When I got to know about these cases, I decided to get it done anyhow,” said Lupinder.

17 kids treated

• Like Rohan, nearly 17 children suffering from Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) have been treated free of cost by Rotary Club as well as Lupinder Kumar in the past two years. The cost of surgery and other expenses, including travel, accommodation and tickets, have solely been borne by Lupinder and other club members from their own pocket.
• Talking about another such case of Sunny Kumar (8), Lupinder said he got to know about him after he visited the government school in Chachrari for some awareness programme.

We were shattered when doctors in Muzaffarpur told us that Rohan had a heart defect. He had started rapidly losing weight when he was just three-month-old. His nail and tongue turned blue and he used to get exhausted with slightest physical movement or while taking breastfeed. After having struggled a lot to look for help, I finally met Soil Conservation Officer Lupinder Kumar and members of Rotary Club of Goraya Midtown who bore the treatment expenses of Rohan at the National Heart Institute in Delhi in June this year. —Anita, mother of 1.5year-old Rohan