Help ! - An appeal

Image courtesy: L.C. Nottaasen

I am going to ask you for help in this post. Quite specifically, money. Even more specifically, for a dear friend whose mother is now under intensive medical care at CMC, Vellore, awaiting surgery for treating a condition called Aortoiliac thrombus. 

The condition, as I understand is an internal blood clot in the artery of her left leg which hinders the supply of blood to the limb and thereby gradually making it a dead organ. She was at a prominent hospital in Chennai till yesterday and has been moved to CMC, Vellore recently. Several efforts to negate a surgery involving attempts to dilute the clot have been tried in vain so far. As indicated by the doctors, a surgery seems imminent and to quote the doctor, "During this hospitalisation the risk of losing the limb is 30 to 40% as there are two level occlusions, and life risk of upto 10% ". 

As we are hoping and praying for her recovery, let me tell you a little bit more about her. This is not the first time she is facing this problem. A similar condition affected her around a year back and she had to let go of her left hand, amputated for exactly the same reason. 

She was a teacher by profession and she taught in the same school where we all studied. She taught the kinder-garten sections. I studied in that school for 2 years but that short phase gave me some good friends whom I still hold close to heart. Warren Gerard Jude Michael is one among them. He is the first Anglo-Indian I have met in my life from close quarters. He had an interesting manner of talking an English mixed Tamil heavily tilted with the slang of Madurai. Everybody in our school know him irrespective of the class or age group. He was a dancer, he was an athlete, he played football, he was mischievous and got many punishments often (sometimes officially from his mother) and he was always a very good friend. His mother, Ms. Olivia is the reason why I am writing this now. 

Warren had no siblings. FYI he had lost his father too at a young age. His mother is one of the most steely women I have met in my life. She has done enough to feel proud about raising her only son now. But the path would not have been smooth for her ever. 

The estimated expense for the surgery and post-op recovery is INR 12 lac. Warren works at an IT company and has already managed to scrape together more than INR 8 lac through insurance, company support and a few friends and family. He is now exploring other avenues to raise funds to support his mother. We friends are trying to collect at least INR 1 lac as a small but vital contribution to the cause. 

Another close friend, Saravanamurthy, is spearheading this effort and I humbly request you to contribute to help our friend by donating whatever sum you can. The transfer of money can be made online to the account of Saravanamurthy and the bank account details are as follows. 

Acc. name. : Saravanamurthy
Acc. no. : 105010100191678
Bank: Axis Bank
Branch: Tuticorin
IFSC Code: UTIB0000105

Immediately as you make the transfer, please fill this form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bhGUFX_62fl1jL1Dmcp_a6DdKwbAov3HMxQu5amg4UM/viewform - so that we will know who you are. It is vital for us to have this information to inform you about the progress later. A few kind friends ping me to tell that they have made a transfer but they feel hesitant to fill this form. Though their intentions are noble about helping anonymously, it is my sincere request to all donors to fill this form. Transparency is of utmost importance in this cause. We are involved in this as a group of friends. The information you fill will be shared with all of them by default. Please do not be shy about being generous. We will not disclose your names to anybody in the public forum. But my friend Warren and his mother will be really glad to write a thank you note to all of you once she recovers back to normalcy.

Having said all this, I can't help but recall a bad experience another friend of mine had recently with a fake NGO. Different people call him from different numbers often and describe the story of an ailing child in a prominent hospital in Chennai and ask for money to help the child. On a little background check made by my friend, we found that it is a fake racket and I can only feel great disgust and anger towards rogues who take advantage of the soft emotions of people. 

I sincerely recommend you to do a background check on this case before making a donation to this cause. You can check with the hospital or with me - my mobile number is 98940 14412. Gomathi Shankar is my name. I live in Chennai. 

With hopes on humanity, 
GS

PS 1 - I am adding this footnote after about 15 hours from posting this blog. We have raised INR 39,100/- so far. What to say? I am touched! Gives me goosebumps just to think of this act of kindness. Indebted to all of you who are standing by our friend. We are confidently moving towards the INR 1 lac mark with all your support.

PS 2 - Citing high blood sugar and BP, the doctors have advised to postpone the surgery by a week. But a surgery has become mandatory now. As Warren said, the cost of treatment is also more economical as compared to the Chennai hospital.