“While my only child, Vivek is fighting death every day in the hospital bed, I feel absolutely helpless because I can’t even be with my baby. I spend working long hours in the fields so that my child’s heart doesn’t stop. What is even painful is to see such a little child  going through so much of pain." -Revadmal, Vivek’s father.

Delay in realizing the symptoms only worsened Vivek

The only child of Sunita and Revadmal, Vivek, has been suffering from multiple heart defects since his birth. He has severe heart defects such as low levels of oxygen in the blood, obstruction of blood flow from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery and huge holes in his heart.

“When Vivek was born, neither my husband nor I had an idea that he was born with such high risk of life. The only thing we could notice was that he would suddenly become blue and would become breathless even after crawling. He would refuse to eat and drink. But we thought that would be fine once he grows up. But as he grew up, things only worsened.” Sunita, Vivek's mother.

The parents don’t even know what is to be blamed for their child’s sufferings

When Sunita and her husband finally figured out that their child has a failing heart, it was already too late. In 2014, the little boy had to be urgently admitted to the hospital for temporary improvement of cardiac function. Little Vivek had reached a position where without this temporary procedure he wouldn’t have lived for 5 years.

“My little baby is paying a huge price for our lack of education. We didn’t know that his symptoms could be as fatal as this and we could lose our baby anytime. His heart is failing badly and rapidly and without the final surgery he will not make it.”

This happy child has fallen all silent now

Vivek used to be a very happy and cheerful child. He is a very smart child and learns things f very fast. Even with a recurring cough and cold, and pneumonia, he would suffer in silence and would barely cry. When the helpless parents have been on the verge of giving up, it is Vivek’s brightened face that keeps them going.

“My husband works in fields and somehow manages to earn a maximum of Rs 200 per day. With his minimum income, we somehow manage our expenses of the household. We had never imagined in our wildest dreams that we would need such large amounts of money.”

How you can help

5-year-old Vivek is slowly succumbing to his heart problems. His parents have already taken small amounts of a loan from their neighbors to desperately save their son. All their hopes are sinking. They are desperately finding a way to gather funds to save their only child. The cost required for the heart surgery now is Rs 2 lakhs and they have no means left to save the baby.