The Hindu : 'Dosti Fund' swells

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 18, 2003

National

National

'Dosti Fund' swells

By Divya Sreedharan

Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Tayyaba Nadeem and Nadeem Sajjad, parents of Noor Fatima, looking at the gifts in their room in Narayana Hrudyalaya, Bangalore, on Thursday.

BANGALORE JULY 17. The Pakistani child, two-and-a-half-year-old Noor Fatima, is recovering in the intensive therapy unit (ITU) of the Narayana Hrudayalaya here and a decision on taking her off the ventilator will be made on Friday.

Noor's parents, Nadeem Sajjad and Tayyaba Nadeem, have had to deal with intense media attention here and in their native place, Mr. Sajjad said. They also got many calls today, "including one from the City Police Commissioner.'' Parents in rooms adjoining theirs at the hospital "keep asking about Noor''.

Like others with wards in the ITU, Noor's parents can see her "for a few minutes'', every morning and evening. They were also in constant touch with their elder children, Tehsin (6) and Mahrukh (4), who are with Mr. Sajjad's mother in Lahore. "They miss us, but it cannot be helped,'' they said.

Mr. Sajjad said back in Pakistan, he would try to help poor parents, whose children had congenital heart problems. Asked if he would monitor the hospital's newly set-up "Dosti Fund,'' he felt it was "...up to Devi Shetty (CMD of the hospital) to use it in the best possible way.'' Their visa allowed them 40 days' stay in India from July 11, the date of their entry. They would go back to Lahore via New Delhi.

At least five more Pakistani children with equally serious congenital heart problems are waiting for issue of visas to consult the hospital's Rajesh Sharma, paediatric cardiac surgeon, who led the open-heart surgery on Noor.

On Thursday, an anonymous donor gave Rs. 50,000 for four-year-old Arbaaz, the son of a daily wage earner from Bangalore. The boy has a ventricular septal defect like Noor, but his parents are too poor to pay the Rs. 80,000 concessional rate the hospital offers. Tazaiyun Oomer, secretary of the Bangalore-based Humane Touch Trust, the organisation that brought the family to the hospital, said the donation would enable Dr. Sharma to operate on the boy once Arbaaz's chest infection cleared. The trust would make up the balance needed for Arbaaz's operation. An April 4 examination had showed that Arbaaz needed surgery within four months.

Meanwhile, Lakshmi Mani, president of the Rotary Bangalore Health City and co-ordinator for Narayana Hrudayalaya charities wing, said the "Dosti Fund'' now had Rs. 1.5 lakhs. "Mr. Sajjad has given Rs. 50,000 and two Rotarians have contributed Rs. 50,000 each,'' she told The Hindu. An anonymous donor has gifted Rs. 1.4 lakhs for Noor's treatment. As her parents opted for a semi-special room at the hospital, Mr. Sajjad had deposited Rs. 1.4 lakhs with the hospital initially. Now that he has used the donor's money to pay for Noor's medical expenses, Mr. Sajjad has given his money to the hospital "to be used for poor Indian children''.

Further, a group of Asian physicians working in North Carolina had called on Ms. Mani, wanting to donate to the "Dosti Fund.''

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Noor better; funds, goodwill pour in

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