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“I don’t care about food, I don’t care about water. I don’t care about living, even. All I do is wait outside the ICU with my husband…looking for any signs of progress in our son’s condition. I call out to him, but he does not open his eyes. He can’t hear my cries…if he could, he would never bear to see me shed tears; he would console me.” – Mahadevi, mother.
Sanju Kumar and Mahadevi’s 16-year-old son has been in a coma for nearly a month now. A severe blood infection has wreaked havoc on his body, damaging his kidneys, liver and even heart. He was on the ventilator for breathing difficulty, but was recently taken off of it after an emergency tracheostomy. His platelet levels are also dipping, requiring blood transfusions regularly as a result. He needs continued ICU care to survive, but his parents, both coolies from Gulbarga, Karnataka, cannot afford to save him.
A harmless stomach ache has now ended in a nightmare
The teen was in class 10 and preparing for his board exams two months ago, when he started experiencing frequent abdominal pain. Despite multiple doctors’ visits and subsequent intake of medicines, he never got better. He was advised to undergo a CT scan at a government hospital – right after which he got chills, his body shaking vigorously in the process, and collapsed as a result. He never opened his eyes or regained consciousness after this point.
“We rushed him to a good hospital in Gulbarga but doctors there advised us to take him to Hyderabad because of how critical he was. He continues to stare death in the eye. What bothers us so much is that he was never a sickly child… he was always so active and so playful. How I wish to see him laugh one more time, with that twinkle in his eye… I miss my child. I don’t know if we will ever get him back.” – Sanju Kumar, tearfully.
‘If something happens to him, there is no point in us continuing to live’
Sanju Kumar and Mahadevi both work hard day and night to run their household, and provide for their two children. Their life was never smooth, as they struggled to make ends meet on most months, but they were always a happy family. Now, everything has changed drastically. They had to sell whatever little they possessed, in terms of jewellery and other possessions, to keep their son alive until now. They also had to borrow heavily from friends and relatives…but all that money is exhausted and they have no way left to pay their son’s medical bills.
“We just want our son to wake up from this coma and talk to us again. We just want to see him alive. There is no point in us living if something bad happens to him. We cannot even imagine it. We are dying every day worrying about how to keep him alive…please help us.”- Sanju Kumar, father
It is only with your kind and immediate help that they can save their child.
The identity of the child is protected in adherence to government guidelines.
