Without An Urgent Surgery, This Girl’s Weak Heart Will Stop | Milaap
Without An Urgent Surgery, This Girl’s Weak Heart Will Stop Beating
  • M

    Created by

    Milaap
  • A

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Abisha

    from Chennai, Tamil Nadu

“I have never discriminated between Abisha and Abhishek on the basis of gender. But I had to stop my daughter from playing and running about anyway. As a child, she used to ask me, ‘why can’t I play like Abhishek.’ I could never make her understand that she has a very weak heart and that it can even choke her to death at any moment. She always felt that just because we don’t allow her to do the things her brother does, we don’t love her. I can’t even tell her how much I love her and how scared I am to lose her,” Selvin, 15-year-old Abisha’s father.

Medicines didn’t make her better, they have only helped her stay alive a little longer

Abisha was born with blue lips and blue legs. After carrying out a few tests, the doctors had told her parents that she needs an urgent heart surgery within a few days of her birth. Even after trying very hard, they couldn’t pool enough money for her surgery. Abisha has somehow managed to survive on medicines all these years, but she could never live the life she wanted.

“5 years ago, one fine day Abisha became so breathless that she could hardly speak. I immediately rushed her to the hospital. I was angry at myself because I couldn’t afford her surgery when she was a little stable. If that could be done, I definitely wouldn’t have to worry about her life now. Doctors told us that she needs an operation immediately. I somehow managed to get her surgery done and she has a stent in her heart now. But even that is no longer enough to save her now."

She wants to live freely like her friends, but her weak heart has forbidden her from all happiness

This young girl has a univentricular heart which means one of her ventricles is smaller than the other one and she has a large hole in her heart. Her blood vessels in the heart are also swapped. These conditions were present since birth and over the years it has blocked a major part of her heart. She needs an open heart surgery to survive. With the delay that has already happened, her condition deteriorating every day. Abisha can lose her life at any moment.

“With time, my daughter’s heart is slowly giving up on her. She goes to school, but unlike her friends, she can’t go by herself. Her mother or I have to take her and bring her back from school. Every morning she wakes up feeling nauseous. She feels that her heart will come out of her chest. After all of these when I hear people getting heart attacks at a very young age, I almost lose hope.”

Neck-deep in debt, Selvin will not be able to save his dying daughter without help

Selvin works as a carpenter and doesn’t have a fixed income. On the days that he makes money, he ends up spending everything on his family's daily needs. On the days that he doesn’t get work, he struggles to even buy food.

“Before my daughter’s first surgery, I never borrowed even a single rupee. But right now I am neck-deep in debt. I have already borrowed and spent almost Rs 2 lakhs to save my daughter. Now I don’t know who can I turn to for help this time. She is running out of time and I need Rs 4 lakhs for my child’s open heart surgery. I have no savings or no support in these tough times.”

How you can help

15-year-old Abisha has a few things left to get a life-saving heart surgery. The young girl has not even been able to enjoy her life and now she might die. The stent is no longer enough to keep her alive. One surgery has already put the parents in debt and now she needs another surgery.

Read More

Know someone in need of funds? Refer to us
support