Patient’s Name: Matt Foster (Tennessee, USA)

Procedure: VSD closure (Pediatric Cardiology)

Consultant: Dr. V. Kohli

Miranda and Ted Jr. welcomed their third child, another son, Matt, to their family. Matt was a happy baby who appeared to be eating well and growing normally. At his second month pediatrician appointment, the doctor thought she heard a murmur in Matt’s heart and suggested his parents to follow up with a pediatric cardiologist.

Matt’s parents took him to Rainbow Babies Hospital, Tennessee and were shocked to learn that Matt had two cardiac defects.

Matt had an atrial septal defect (ASD), which is a hole between the left and right atriums and a large ventricular septal defect (VSD), which is a hole between his left and right ventricles. As a result of these defects, much of the blood that was supposed to be sent to his body was being sent back to his lungs. His lungs were getting flooded and his heart was working hard to get blood out to his body.

Matt was immediately admitted to the hospital. Shortly after Matt was admitted to the hospital, he began to show typical symptoms of VSD including lack of energy and visibly labored breathing. Within three weeks, Sean went from the 50th percentile in weight to the third. Doctors needed to act quickly.

Doctor’s continued to monitor Sean’s health and decided that they would surgically place a patch in Matt’s ventricle that would permanently repair the hole. Unfortunately, Matt developed Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) a serious respiratory illness that affects children. The RSV prevented Matt from being strong enough for surgery because he would not be able to tolerate the heart lung bypass machine that would function for his heart and lungs during the surgery.

But there was only one concern. Ted’s insurance policy doesn’t cover Matt. If the life saving procedure would have performed, it could cost too high to Miranda and Ted to afford.

Ted had no options but to sell his house to save Matt’s life. Miranda had also applied for the loan but seemed to be working fine. In the rage of disappointment, Miranda started looking for help on the web. She requested people to donate money for her son’s surgery. One day Miranda watched ‘60 Minute’ on television and saw the story of a few Americans who went India, to Apollo Hospital and saved almost 10times the money had spent in India.

Miranda remembers that day as one of the pleasant days when she found the hope for her son. She reached karmal.org and sent Matt’s reports to them. In an hour she received a call from a pediatric cardiosurgeon from Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. Dr. Vikas Kohli described Matt’s condition as critical that required ASD, VSD closure as soon as possible. Karmal made the travel arrangements for Matt and his parents. An air ambulance was required for Matt to come to India. Karmal representative, Alok, expedite the process of booking an air ambulance from Tennessee to New Delhi, India.

Matt and his family reached Apollo Hospital after three days of Miranda’s initial conversation with Dr. Kohli and Alok. The cardiac surgery package offered to Matt was of USD19630, that included the air fare of the air ambulance, 12days stay in India and the cost of the surgeries and medicines.

Dr. Kohli and his team started their work. While still open chest surgery, it did not require the heart lung machine. After the surgery, Matt spent about a week in intensive care and 5days in the hospital.

Miranda said that throughout his hospitalization, the team at Apollo Hospital was fantastic to her entire family. “When we brought Sam our eldest son to visit Matt, the nurses would unhook Matt from as many machines has he could tolerate for half an hour and they would take Sam to the play room. The entire nursing staff and the doctors used to speak good English. We were served with good American cuisine everyday. Everybody was very helping, especially Alok, who made our travel arrangements, booked appointments for us and made sure that we were not bothered of anything except my son’s health. Alok took the burden of 1/3 of my worries. It really made a huge difference to our family to have everyone recognize that the entire family was going through this experience, not just Matt.”

Within six days, Matt was home and doing well. He continued to gain weight, had learned to crawl and is still developing a wonderful personality. While his actual first birthday occurred during his recovery from the surgery, his parents are planning a large and celebratory first birthday party for him.

“I just can’t say enough about how wonderful the doctors, nurses, Alok & Karmal are” said Miranda. “We were just completely impressed from one end to the other of all the care and attention we received. Everyone just led us from one thing to the next, We were never left to fend for ourselves.”

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