Maharashtra provides free surgeries - Fusion - WeRIndia

Many children from remote villages with life-threatening heart problems have a difficult time finding a cure, since their families do not have access to many medical facilities.

Other children are not even aware that they have these conditions, and thus, are not able to receive treatment soon enough.

Sayali Kadam, one such child, was detected with an atrial septal defect when she was only one-and-a-half years old.

Her family did not have enough money to pay for her surgery, since her father only earned a meager living as a farmer. However, hope still remained for Sayali.

She is now one of 8,000 children that are undergoing surgeries funded by the Maharashtra State Government, in order to give them a chance to fully live their lives.

The government-sponsored Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram has identified over 8,000 children under the age of 14 with life-threatening heart conditions in the state of Maharashtra.

All of these children will be given surgeries sponsored by an early intervention program.

The surgeries will be performed in Mumbai at the best hospitals in the state by the best doctors in the state.

Dr. Archana Patil, the Additional Director of health services (family and welfare), said that a team of over 1,100 officers and 64 civil surgeons are identifying children in 32 districts who are in urgent need of medical attention.

This week, the first 20 children are arriving in Mumbai. Starting with these first 20 children, the government is aiming to conduct the surgeries on all 8,000 children by the end of this year.

These funded surgeries will relieve the families of these children of a huge financial burden, since a pediatric heart surgery costs at least ₹1.5 lakh in a government hospital and about ₹10 lakh in a private hospital.

Now, thanks to this initiative by the Maharashtra government, children like Sayali can have a chance to live full, happy, and healthy lives.

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