HYDERABAD: Nine-year-old Deepika Mehra from Amritsar received a new lease of life with the city-based Hrudaya Foundation funding her surgery to rectify a congenital heart defect.

A media report read by Deepika's grandfather about the free treatment provided to poor children by the foundation paved the way for her surgery. She was suffering from Atrial Septum Defect (ASD), a condition in which a hole is formed in the wall between the upper chambers of the heart.

After diagnosing the condition, Gopichand Mannam, founder of the foundation and chief cardiothoracic suregon at CARE Hospital, performed the surgery on November 25.

Presenting her before newsmen on Saturday, he said the foundation had planned to complete 120 surgeries on children suffering from congenital heart diseases by August next when it completes one year.

A two-year-old boy, Manikanta, hailing from a poor family of Hanamkonda (Warangal district), who also underwent a surgery to rectify ventricular septal defect, was present.

So far the foundation had sponsored 25 surgeries and another 63 were shortlisted.

He said the parent organisation in the US "Cure a Little Heart" had contributed Rs. 1 crore through fund-raising events. Donations totalling Rs. 22 lakhs were received from within the country.

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