Hyderabad: Seven-month-old Sana was born with a congenital liver defect and soon after her birth, her liver functions steadily deteriorated. With no chance of survival without surgery, Sana’s parents had given up hope. But this changed when members of the Heal a Child group stepped in.
Cate Van Den Hill, Dr Kiran Krishnamurthi, Karen Bhatia, Rachna Mehta and Sabina Xavier raised Rs 15 lakh in less than two weeks to save the child’s life and thanks to them, seven-month-old Sana now has a chance of living a normal life.
Ask them how everything fell into place and Karen explains, “Baby Sana’s case came to us and we unanimously decided to take it up. This beautiful baby deserved every chance to live. Her parents are very young; we just had to make an effort to save her.”
So how did they raise the money? “Our contacts, friends, donors, everyone reached out and we closed the balance,” says Sabina. The group not only raised money for the surgery, but is in the process of raising enough for the two years of post-surgical care.
“Our official focus is usually on neo-natal critical care with a special focus on the girl child, but we have made two exceptions. The first was a nine-year-old boy, Sai Ganesh, who needed a liver transplant in June 2011, and now baby Sana,” says Karen.
While close friends had been a great help, even actors Samantha and Mahesh Babu helped them raise funds.
“Through the family’s outreach plans, actress Samantha took an interest and reached out to her fans and ended up raising a significant amount of the money. We committed to raise the balance needed for the surgery and a bit extra for them to look after her properly for two years,” explains Karen.
And Mahesh Babu is their goodwill ambassador. The actor had posted a notice on his Facebook fan page and his official website and his fans started donating money.
