The Hindu : All hearts go out to her

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 15, 2003

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All hearts go out to her

By Divya Sreedharan

Photo: V.Sreenivasa Murthy

Noor Fatima with her mother, Tayyaba Nadeem in Bangalore.

BANGALORE July 14. The two-and-a-half year old Pakistani child, Noor Fatima's open heart surgery has been `tentatively fixed'' at 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16. Her parents, Nadeem Sajjad and Tayyaba Nadeem, nervous about the delicate procedure that lies ahead, have also had to deal with intense media attention.

The healing of Noor's heart, even as she stays in clinical isolation, has come to symbolise the healing of hearts across the ravaged borders. Among those saying prayers for her are her siblings, Tehsin (6), and Mahrukh (4) back in Lahore and scores of people in India and Pakistan.

``The team of surgeons who will operate on her are confident that everything will go off fine,'' said the official spokesperson of Narayana Hrudayalaya, a heart-care speciality hospital here, where she has been admitted.

The child arrived in India with her parents when the Lahore-Delhi bus service was resumed last Friday.

A battery of surgeons, headed by the paediatric cardiac surgeon, Rajesh Sharma, will perform the operation expected to last four to five hours. Dr. Sharma said that when she was less than a year old, Noor was diagnosed as having a ventricular septal defect (VSD) with pulmonary stenosis — holes in the heart with obstruction of blood flow to the lungs. ``There is a defect in the wall separating the right and left ventricles in the heart and, therefore there is mixing of pure and impure blood. This, in turn, leads to other complications,'' he explained. At the time of the diagnosis, Noor was too young to undergo surgery.

The operation costs around Rs. 1.25 lakhs. Noor's parents can actually afford to pay, but the hospital is considering giving them concessions. Several philanthropists have come forward to bear the expenses. While Noor's parents have expressed appreciation for such gestures, hospital sources said that ``all they (the parents) want is the goodwill of the people.''

While little Noor prepares for her surgery after a relatively short journey to Bangalore, another Pakistani child, six-month-old Babar, is still trying to fight off the rigours of a more circuitous route. He arrived here via West Asia and, according to hospital officials, has been in the Intensive Therapeutic Care Unit since Wednesday last, being treated for pneumonia among other things.

``Doctors are still trying to decide when to operate on him,'' sources said. Parents of both children are staying at the hospital.

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