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Out to save a thousand hearts

‘Save 1,000 hearts, 1,000 lives, 1,000 families’ is the aim and the name of the latest project by the Heart Care Foundation, an organisation formed to help poor heart patients, create awareness of heart diseases and assist research in heart care.

Already, 148 heart surgeries have been done with financial aid from the foundation, says its chairman Jose Chacko Periapuram. The foundation supports deserving patients chosen by a clinical committee of the government medical colleges. In fact, the foundation does not get to know the patient unless the patient makes an effort to know.

Anyone can call the foundation’s hotline number — 9847006000 — for help on matters concerning heart surgeries, counselling before surgery and preventive and post-operative heart care.

The brand ambassadors for the foundation, cine actors Suresh Gopi and Kunchako Boban and cricketer S. Sreesanth, have helped raise funds for the programmes, said Dr. Chacko. There are many businessmen who have helped too, he added. A quarterly journal on heart care called ‘Caring Hearts’ was also launched as part of the awareness campaign and to raise funds for the foundation.

For the foundation to help, the patients should preferably be the earning member of a family, should be from the below poverty line group and also, should raise 25 per cent of the cost of surgery. “We would like to provide help to those on whom a family depends,” said Dr. Chacko. Seventy-five per cent of the cost is handed over to the superintendent of the concerned medical college where the recommended surgery is done.

The foundation started the programme about two years ago and it is estimated that Rs.2.5 crore is needed to complete the project.

As part of the awareness and counselling programmes, the foundation holds meetings for patients and family members. There is generally one counselling session after the surgery and few follow-up programmes. The meetings help heart patients get advice or support as they progress after surgeries or other cardiac procedures. A meeting will be held at the Town Hall on May 10.

Shyama Rajagopal

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