Muni Dimple (12), a bright and cheerful young girl, saw her future come crashing down before her eyes last month. She was diagnosed with a severe heart disease after bouts of extreme breathlessness. Not only is this class topper too weak to go to school now, but even walking a short distance is a herculean task for her. The only cure for her is an urgent heart surgery, without which, there’s no way for her to make it out of this ordeal.

Muni Dimple’s heart condition remained undetected for 12 years

Dimple has been living with the serious heart defect since birth. Unfortunately for her, it was only detected one month ago when her condition began rapidly deteriorating. All her life, she has grown up thinking that even the slight breathlessness she felt so often, was normal. Since she never complained of any pain or showed any symptoms, her parents also remained oblivious to the fact that a disease was silently killing her. 

“Her physical growth was always slower than the other children. We took her to the hospital several times to get checked, but she always remained a little underweight and shorter for her age. It never occurred to us that she was sick. She didn’t have any symptoms and seemed like any other child running around and playing with her friends. We’re so shocked. If only we had found out earlier, then she wouldn’t be fighting death now.”

An uncertain future and crushed dreams for Dimple 

“Dimple wants to become a doctor and save lives. Her teachers are always praising her for how sharp she is and how well she does in her studies. My husband and I are only small farmers. Dimple is very ambitious and wants to work hard to make us proud. She is the light of our lives, our hope, our everything. How can I tell her that her dream of saving lives might never come true because we can’t save her?”

Dimple is too young to understand the implications of the disease. Even in sickness, all she thinks about is going back to school and playing with her friends like she used to. She’s extremely focused on her dreams of becoming a doctor. She asks the doctors so many questions. However, without a surgery, Dimple’s future is uncertain.

Her parents are heartbroken that they can’t afford life-saving surgery for their daughter

Desperate to save their daughter, Lavanya and Nagamuni took Dimple all the way to Bangalore in the hope of saving her life. Lavanya and Naga Muni are farmers in a village in Andhra Pradesh, and the Rs 4 lakhs needed for her surgery are out of their reach. On some days work is sparse, and on the days they have work, they earn Rs 250 per day. Their income is barely sufficient for their daily needs, let alone for increasing medical expenses.

“We did everything to try and give our daughter a better life than we had, but now I feel like we’re failing. If only we weren’t so poor, we could’ve saved our daughter’s life. For 12 years we didn’t know she had a heart disease, and now that we finally found out, we can’t do anything to save her. The only thing we have left is a little hope that by some miracle, she can have the surgery and her life is saved.”

How You Can Help

Muni Dimple has her whole life ahead of her. At an age when she should be learning and playing, a serious heart disease stands in the way of her future. Her heart can't pump blood correctly to the rest of the body, and she needs an urgent surgery before her condition worsens beyond repair. She has lived with the condition for 12 years now but can’t go on any longer without treatment.

Your support can save Muni Dimple’s life.