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Time running out for HLH-afflicted Siddhi

KOLKATA, JULY 19. A fund-raising rock concert, the man in the street, students, captains of industry besides elite clubs are rallying to the support of 15-year-old Siddhi Worah ever since her plight was published in the media.

She needs a massive Rs. 1.5 crore for treatment of her affliction, the rarest of the rare Hemophagocytic Lympho Histocytosis (HLH), but the money trickling in only amounts to Rs. 25 lakh so far, as time runs out for the schoolgirl.

"We are very touched by these gestures. Even total strangers are pledging to help Siddhi. Many clubs and organisations and school children are actively taking part in fund raising drives," Dr. Swati Worah, the girl's mother said.

"We have also appealed to the Prime Minister's relief fund and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in New Delhi to help bear the estimated treatment cost of Rs 1.5 crore," she said.

The only hope for Siddhi is the highly specialized matched unrelated donor bone marrow transplant something that cannot be performed in this country.

It has to be done at the Children's Welfare Medical Centre, Ohio in the U.S. A donor for the Matched Unrelated Donor Bone marrow transplantation has also been found. Siddhi, whose immune system has virtually collapsed, meanwhile had to be taken to a Kolkata hospital three days ago, her seventh visit, since August, after her liver began to malfunction because of toxicity from medication. She also developed a chest infection coupled with high temperature.

"We had to stop her chemotherapy temporarily in consultation with her Mumbai-based doctor, who is coordinating her treatment in India. But once the fever subsides and the toxicity level goes down we have to work towards her main treatment in the USA," Swati Worah, a doctor at the Ram Krishna Mission hospital here, said.

She said Dr. Lisa Fillipovich, the internationally reputed Ohio physician treating HLH patients, had also offered to appeal to the hospital authorities where the transplant is to be done to reduce the expenditure. The hospital authorities there have promised to consider the appeal.

"Once they send us a communiqué about the concession we will make the final move for our daughter's core treatment," Dr. Worah said.

Promise of assistance has also been received from Non-Resident Indians at Ohio and from other parts of U.S., who are coordinating with the hospital.

Back at home, students of La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata, raised money by holding a theatre show with prominent young actors.

PTI

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