“Every time her chest pain gets worse, she runs to me and cries, yelling ‘It hurts so much, Ma, I cannot bear it anymore. I think I am going to die.’ I hug her tight and tell her that everything is going to be alright, but even I break down immediately as I cannot bear to see her suffer like this. She is getting worse with every passing day and I am just helpless”-Renu Devi, mother.

Little Priya Kumari has a huge hole in her heart which makes the lungs and the heart work harder to pump oxygenated blood in the body. She needs surgery to close this hole, or her heart can fail and her lungs can become congested, leading to even death.

‘She used to be so active, now she cannot even get up from bed’

Priya, a cheerful child, was studying in 3rd grade when she suddenly started suffering from recurrent chest pain 5 months ago. She also started getting fevers regularly – and every time her parents took her to the local health centre near their village in Bihar, they would give her medicines only for the fever. This cycle continued until her pain became unbearable recently and she collapsed in school.

“We were shocked. After being denied help at many clinics, we decided to take her to Chennai for check-up. She was diagnosed with the heart disease there. Priya was present when the doctors explained her condition. Now that she knows that she is ill, she has become an entirely different child. She refuses to even get up from bed on most days,”-Renu

An old photo of the family

With her husband away, this mother is struggling all by herself to save her child

After years of being unemployed, Priya’s father, Rajesh Kumar, just recently secured a job as a helper in a steel company based in Gujarat. He had been away from home when Priya was rushed to Chennai for treatment. Her mother, Renu, had to handle everything- from begging people to get money required for admission charges and medicines, to consoling her sick child when her pain would worsen. Renu had to even leave her second child, her 4-year-old son, back home in the care of her mother. Without anybody to help her, this mother is struggling to save her daughter.

“My husband calls me and cries. He desperately wants to come here and be with us in this bad time, but he will lose his job if he does that. We cannot lose that source of income at this point. He is also trying to arrange some money by asking coworkers and even strangers, but nothing has come yet. I don’t know anybody in this town – there is nobody to console me, let alone offer monetary help,”-Renu, tearfully.

With your kind contribution, this helpless mother can save her daughter before it is too late