Moti Kala, a 17-year-old patient of rheumatic heart disease, has put the PGI in a problem that the institute has never faced before.

Requiring a mitral valve replacement (MVR), this teenager from Nepal, accompanied by her 20-year-old brother Sunil, has been living in the gurdwara on the hospital premises for nearly six months, surviving barely on the donations from philanthropists.

In case of poor Indian patients, respective state governments grant funds for their treatment, but in this case PGI officials have no option but to seek help from the Nepal government.

“This is the first case of its kind that we have received in our Poor Patient Cell. The patient is not an Indian resident. It has been six months since the girl has been awaiting funds. We now plan to write to the Nepal government if it could help her under any of its schemes,” says Dr Anuradha Jatana of the Poor Patient Cell, PGI.

According to doctors, the girl’s condition is not serious at present and she can survive on medicines for some time, but only a surgery can completely cure her.

Dr Jatana said they had already declared the patient ‘poor free’, which entitles her to avail herself the part of the treatment free of cost. Moti, however, still needs over Rs 1.25 lakh for the operation, and does not know where to go for help. She has already exhausted the money—around Rs 3,000—that she had received from the Red Cross Society for medicines.

... contd.