Three messiahs who saved little boy’s heart

Four-year-old Navraj took his first baby steps to school for the first time this year. It was a moment of triumph for two resilient women and a man — the mother, a teacher and a doctor — who, through disappointments and storms, never gave up on the hope of sending the little boy to school one day.

Born in 2020 with a congenital heart disease, Navraj was written off as a “weak” child by local doctors, until his mother discovered the truth of a serious heart ailment. Sewing footballs for a living and married to an alcoholic, Suman Bala, a resident of Virk village in Phagwara, moved mountains despite her poverty, to ensure that her son got proper treatment. Her most vital help came from a school teacher.

Navraj was born with supracardiac total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) with a large atrial septal defect (ASD) - a rare congenital heart defect, that can cause heart failure. Ignored while pregnant, Suman suffered severe health problems while expecting Navraj. She previously has three daughters in classes IX, VI and III.

Suman Bala (40) said, “I suffered heavy bleeding during my delivery with Navraj and was administered several bottles of blood. Proper attention couldn’t be paid to Navraj. As a baby, he was weak, slept a lot and wouldn’t cry much. He also couldn’t digest anything including milk, having repeated indigestion. Local doctors said he suffered from ‘weakness’. When taken to a private doctor during an indigestion episode, he scolded us for not getting him checked earlier from heart doctor. I was shocked to know he told this to my husband earlier, who didn’t inform me. He was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. My family said it’s far, but I stayed adamant.”

In 2021, Suman Bala dedicated weeks and months for her son’s tests and diagnosis at the PGI and eventually, an open heart surgery was recommended.

Suman Bala said, “I borrowed money from relatives to take him there repeatedly, but everytime, we would get a new date. Due to patient rush at the PGI, we weren’t getting a bed. My husband occasionally took money I arranged for Navraj’s treatment. My daughters’ long absence from school. Prompted enquiries from teachers. I told teacher Daljit Kaur (a teacher at her daughters’ government school) of my plight. She changed things for me dramatically.”

Bala said, “Madam Daljit Kaur helped me through her resources and got a surgery scheduled for Navraj. She and her husband paid my expenses for tests, medication, arranged ambulance to take Navraj to the PGI for surgery, translated treatment messages (which we couldn’t read). On the final day of the discharge, she came to the PGI personally to drop us back at Virk. Earlier, I was toiling all alone. I’m immensely thankful to her.”

She added, “I’m also thankful to Dr Pankaj Agrawal at the PGI, Chandigarh, who treated and healed my son.”

Daljit Kaur, then teacher at Government Senior Secondary School, Virk, said, “It’s a great pleasure to see Navraj go to school. I sensed light at the end of the tunnel for the family. She was so poor she couldn’t even afford taxi. The labour and hard work being put in by Navraj’s mother also prompted me. Navraj’s sisters were missing school. My heart said I needed to do my best to save this child.” Bala beamed, “It is Navraj’s first year at school, his sisters accompany him. He is in the LKG and has begun to read and write.”