Click to play videoMumbai: A day after the Bombay High Court disallowed Niketa and Haresh Mehta from aborting their 25-week-old foetus, help is pouring in for them from all quarters.
The Mehtas are a middle class family in Mumbai. Haresh works with a stock brokerage firm while Niketa is a teacher. For the couple it is difficult to meet the expenses incurred in the treatment of a child with a congenital heart defect, especially the expenses in installing a pacemaker right after the child’s birth.
Pacemakers are of different types, the costs ranging from Rs 95,000 to Rs 10 lakh. The surgery to install the pacemaker in the heart costs approximately Rs 4 lakh. Also, pacemaker batteries last upto 10 years after which they need to be replaced.
However, despite all odds there are many who have come to help the couple. Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital has offered to bear the entire expenses for installing the pacemaker.
CEO, Jaslok Hospital, Colonel M Masand said, “We will pay for the pacemaker and not charge them even for the surgery. They would not have to bear any financial burden.”
The hospital's pediatric cardiologist Dr Ashwin Mehta, who has offered to do the surgery for free, said there is still hope for the child.
"The child's heart could also benefit from proper exercise and drugs that can be used to increase the heart rate. Also, a pacemaker can be fitted within hours of the birth,” Dr Mehta added.
Offers of help are also pouring in from other quarters. The Catholic Church has offered to adopt the child. Archdiocese of Bombay Cardinal Oswald Gracias said, “We are willing to adopt the child and bring him up.”
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
 |
 |
 |
|
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.