Today
i visited the hospital where our little warrior has started camping. As you can see from the picture (which i managed to take stealthily from a window outside the "highly sterile room"), Rishi is all set to defeat cancer and win this round. He has placed a lot of hope on us and believes that while he is doing his bit, we will do ours. Looking at the support which has been pouring in from the various parts of the world, his parents believe that indeed it is God who wills that an individual takes birth and it is HIM alone who provides to meet the individual's needs. They had never imagined that their son would receive so much attention and have so many people following the progress of his health.
Chirpy Little Rutuja was near her father (shown in picture) and i asked her about herself. All she could tell me was that while she did not enjoy eating all that healthy food (including biryani), she had to do it since the doctor wanted her hemoglobin level to increase. She proudly told me that it was "13". Indeed blessed is this boy whose own sister is feeding herself like a guinea pig only so that she can donate a part of herself to help him live. Sporting a bandage on her arm she was prepared to take up her position against the mighty cancer which threatens to take away her brother. She studies in Std 5, in St. Francis School. Rishi also studies in the same school in Std. 7.
Now coming to the finer details of what i found out. After Rishi was detected with cancer, the family tried its best to provide him the best of treatment. His treatment started at the Budhrani Hospital and after spending a lot of money (3 lakhs) on tests, chemotherapy and treatment, the result was not encouraging. They were then referred to Sahyadri Hospital and they met Dr. Shashikant Apte. He filled them with hope and told them that if they were to find a donor for bone marrow, there is a very good chance that Rishi can be fully cured. This good news was followed up with another good news, which is that his own sister was identified as an identical donor and her bone marrow could be used to give him Life. But no good news comes without a rider. Here the rider was the cost. But the boy's father was determined to fight and he spent another 4 lakhs on the initial HAM treatment which is a predecessor to the bone marrow transplant.
The transplant itslef is going to cost about 8 lakh rupees. The father again raised 3.5 lakhs and undeterred decided to start the treatment of the kid. But the balance is what he is not able to raise and this is where WE CAME IN.But let me also tell you about where he raised all this (totally about 11 lakhs) money from.
Loans from relatives - 400,000
House mortgage - 300,000
Credit Society Personal Loan - 60,000
Charity - 340,000
So you can clearly see that the man is already neck deep in loans (totally 760,000). With a monthly income of 13,000 doesn't look like he can even repay the interest on it!!!
So now, there is an expenditure of another 450,000 to be incurred immediately and another 400,000 after the bone marrow transplant to cover all possibilities including the worst case which is a relapse.
I spoke to Dr. Apte who says that this kid has a 70% chance to make through clean, but then you cant always predict what can happen. These are just statistics and not any kind of indicators. When i told him that this means that the kid will need a lot of good luck to get cured, he cut me short saying that.......he'll need lots of bad luck to not be cured. I was amazed at his response. The doctor is as optimistic as the kid himself. This is surely a winning combination and if we add our prayers to it, we could create a success story.
Now coming to the most important aspect......where are we on the collections front......how much more and have we done enough......???
We have 2.5 lakhs in collections from all our sai brothers, about 60k from Ramdas' colleagues in Compassites. that leaves us short of 4.5 - 3.1 = 1.4 lakhs. But this is not the real figure. If we do not provision at least 200k out of the 400k required after the bone marrow transplant, the effort could be a complete waste. Also, with the father servicing the debt, there will be no money left behind to create a sterile environment for the kid at home and to feed him nutritious and most importantly sterile food and water.
Considering all this the need is to raise about 5.4 lakhs (1.4 + 4) more.
The doctor has been very helpful and he spoke to the in house NGO at the hospital (Samavedana) which will take complete responsibility of accepting the donations, providing 80(g) receipts and governing the use of the funds. Apart from this the hospital itself has already extended concessions. The regular cost of a transplant is about 10 lakhs, the hospital has provided free medicines worth 1 lakh, the doctor has taken a fee cut and the room rent (its 7k/night for the sterile room) has been heavily subsidized. That's totally worth about 2 lakhs.
Rishi's treatment has started and the transplant will take place on 16th or the 17th.
It was a very emotional moment (for me) when i handed over the cheque for 2.5 lakhs to Rishi's mother. i was expecting her to react, but then looking at her face (that's all i could see since she was covered with sterile clothes) i realised that her feelings were already dead and she stood completely emotionless. how difficult it must be for a mother to see a part of herself being eaten away by disease. Indeed sad and i hope we can put a smile back on her face again.
On the next steps.......they are as below:
1. Raise 5.4 lakhs more asap.
2. Pray as much as possible.....(a lot of things can go wrong...)
3. Scan all documents related to his medical condition and publish them. (This can be used for seeking aid from recognized charities in India and abroad) - I will get this done
4. Make available all receipts of payments made by Rishi's family for his medical condition till now - i will have this done.
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