Share
About Mousumi
Mousumi Biswas is 21 years old and is residing in Nadia, West Bengal. She is a very bright student pursuing BA in Philosophy and History (2nd Year) . She is very ambitious of pursuing higher studies. However, she has been diagnosed with Post Meningitis Bilateral Profound Hearing Loss.
Click here to learn more about this disorder:https://www.meningitisnow.org/meningitis-explained/after-meningitis/after-effects-meningitis/hearing-loss/
How she carries out her daily life:
She can't listen to any sound, can't enjoy music, movies. She has been like this for almost 15 years now. The struggle of her life is increasing as she grows older.
With a very limited vocabulary knowledge, she goes about her day with laborious lip-reading, and casual sign language. This has led to anxiety build-up and frustration on number of occasions, affecting her mental health too.
She always needs a family member or a person to travel around and be safe. She isn't able to carry out a lot of tasks that people take for granted. For example, crossing the road, calling someone when they are away using voice call, listen to daily sounds of nature, birds, wind, music, and a lot of other sounds.
In college, she is completely dependent on making notes by copying them from someone else. She needs active tutoring, to understand advanced concepts. This is not affordable for the family.
Mishaps and other issues:
1) She was recently lost during a local train journey due to a huge crowd. She was temporarily separated from her brother and couldn't get down at the right station. Unable to communicate directly, she had a panic attack. However, she was luckily found on the next station.
2) Limited number of friends, and almost non-existing social interactions sometimes lead her to anxiety and frustrations.
3) She also feels cutout, and sometimes misunderstands normal family conversations, leading to further anxiety and unhappiness.
How much time do we have?
As per the consultant doctors, the best age for cochlear implants is when the person is younger than 10 years. She is already late by many years. To make the most of the implant, the procedure has to be performed as soon as possible. The delay causes issues like extreme toughness to adjust to the new ways and may lead to anxiety due to frustrations and over-consciousness.Why we didn't do it earlier?
As the whole family is based in a village, we were limited in terms of awareness of such procedures and had no expert affordable medical advise. This caused the delay. However, as soon as we came to know about the possibilities of improvement in her conditions, we have tried everything in our capacity to help her.About The Family:
We reside in Village "Bagula College Para" in Nadia District of West Bengal.
The whole family lives in a Kaccha house made of Tin. We are not able to afford a Pucca house or a rented place in the city due to other necessary expenses like medicines, grocery, etc.
Her regular checkups are done at CMC Vellore, which is in Tamil Nadu. Travelling and lodging costs itself has put a hole in our savings.
Our monthly family income is approximately Rs.10,000/-
Our father is a temporary open market seller of household necessities.
I, her brother, am still looking for job.
Her regular checkups are done at CMC Vellore, which is in Tamil Nadu. Travelling and lodging costs itself has put a hole in our savings.
This has made it impossible for us to arrange the amount for surgery. I personally have contributed all my savings kept for my higher education to help her get treated.
She needs to undergo cochlear implant surgery to hear again. She is being treated at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore. The total cost of implant, the surgery, medicines and training will be around Rs.17,50,000/- (approximately $24,717) for one ear .
Not just that, we need to pay the fee of the fundraiser website, which is 5% of total donations, and cover other costs like transport to and from home-town in West Bengal to Tamil Nadu, and boarding and lodging away from home for her post surgery training for at least 1 month period. This brings the whole costs to excess of Rs.19,00,000/- ($27,142).Here are the documents in support of her problem and treatment.
Here is the cost estimate undersigned by the consultant doctor at CMC, Vellore.
Please come forward to help my sister. Any contribution will immensely help my family. Do contribute and share this campaign link with your friends and family.
