Celebrating Our Hospitals

“Not All Angels have Wings, Soma Have Scrubs”

Child heart treatment, hole in heart treatment

For some people the word hospital brings to their mind a picture of distress, and trouble, a picture that they do not want to entertain or wish to see. While for some   others a hospital may have been something short of a temple, where their body was healed, where their loved one was saved from the jaws of death and given a second chance to live.

For many of our families dealing with a child heart treatment, hospitals and the doctors, nurses and social workers that form these hospitals fall in this second category – for them hospitals are places where their wishes have come true, where they have seen magic unfold, where their little one’s hearts have been healed and where their children have been given a chance at life.

This month we celebrate the main pillars of everything we do – we celebrate our hospitals.

As a foundation working with children who receive hole in heart treatment and other interventions for their heart defect, we often find ourselves in the hospitals where we are able to witness the behind the scenes drama and then see the magic actually unfold in giving a child a second chance to life. Each of our 34 plus hospitals partners have a dedicated team of pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiac surgeons that work tirelessly in finding the best child heart treatment. What stands out as something amazing is the interest the entire medical team takes in the child, even though the child has come from a not so privileged background. That never changes the way the team interacts with the family and nor does it influence the treatment they prescribe for the child.

Dr Kaushik Jothinath, Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiologist at GKNM Hospital with his

Each of our hospitals works closely with us to follow stringent guidelines to ensure that all protocol is followed and that no child is deprived of quality treatment only because the parents could not understand what the treatment was and because the family did not have the money to pay for the treatment.

Together with the exemplary work that our hospital partners have put forth we have been able to achieve many a first in the history of child heart treatment and that too while working with underprivileged children.

• For the first time a one month old pre mature baby weighing only 900 gms underwent a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) Device Closure procedure.
• 11-year-old daughter of a driver, is a miracle child whose surgery is one of the first in India where a 3D model of the heart was printed to aid the complex open-heart surgery. A 17-year-old girl became the first person in the world where her pulmonary valve was recreated using her own tissues. This is the first time where an Ozaki procedure has been performed on the right chambers of the heart for a Double Switch Surgery.
• Recently a 3 month old baby became the youngest child in the world to undergo a Tetralogy of Fallot Correction with Cor triatriatum

These are only some of the exemplary examples of the treatment for congenital heart defects by our hospital partners.

The caring hands that are always at work in giving life a second chance

None of this would have been possible without the caring hands, the dedication and the skills of our hospital partners.

A visit to the hospital and one will see the behind the scenes that goes to get that the child the right treatment, it usually starts with the social worker at the hospital handholding the anxious, overwhelmed and worried parents about the nuances of the treatment, the doctors explaining so patiently what they are about to do and that their child and the nurses looking after these little children while they are in the Intensive care units as their own. As an NGO working with underprivileged children who have heart defects,   it is heartening to see how the team comes together for that one child, the anxiety and stress that they go through when they know they are handling a critical procedure and they know the extent of hope the parents have pinned on the team healing their child.

Our hospitals are our temples, they are the places where miracles happen, where stories change and where we are able to give life a chance to thousands of children- either through a hole in the heart treatment or through other interventions. We are proud and at the same time grateful to the entire team in each of our 35 + partner hospitals for their tireless work and for the honesty and passion with which they work with our children. Today and always, we celebrate our hospitals – who are the real heartbeats of the Foundation.

To read more about our hospital partners click here.