Few costs covered through community support from online crowd funding platform – Ketto.org
Low birth weight baby girl with serious respiratory complications treated at Paras Bliss Panchkula. The hospital provides a generous waiver to the family and donors from across the country helps the hospital in the initiative.
Panchkula, 20th December 2016: In a remarkable example of good Samaritans coming together to support a cause, a prematurely born baby girl with serious respiratory complications was treated at Paras Bliss Hospital, Panchkula. The hospital and its team of neonatologists of repute provided exceptional care to the baby girl. They also helped the poor family by providing them a waiver of more than Rs 4 lakhs. In their effort to include the community, Paras Bliss Hospital Panchkula, raised some amount through an online crowd funding portal. The amount helped to cover some cost of the disposables and the consumables that were procured by the hospital to treat the patient in the level III NICU.
According to Dr Rishi Managat, Centre Head, Paras Bliss Hospital, Panchkula, “The baby girl was treated almost free of cost by the hospital authorities and the hospital also wanted to include the community in the good work. They found generous financial help through fund raising platform Ketto, that aided the hospital cover the cost of some of the consumables and disposables. Paras Bliss provided a substantial waiver to the family of the girl child. We are medical professionals and it is our duty to fight for the lives of every individual. When this little bundle of joy arrived in the hospital with serious medical issues our team of neonatologists’ headed by Dr Krishan Yadav appealed to us that we should do everything to save it.”
The baby was born with extremely low birth weight and weighed just about 900 grams when she was brought to the hospital in October, fighting for her life. Today, she is a healthy child showing normal growth parameters, thanks to incessant efforts of the hospital doctors, and the help provided by several people.
Ketto co-founder and actor Kunal Kapoor today joined a press conference conducted by Paras Hospital, Panchkula through a video link to thank people for lending their support to this noble cause.
The baby stayed at the hospital for almost two months during which the entire cost of treatment including equipment, nursing, NICU management was borne by the hospital, while the financial help shared by donors helped the baby’s parents meet the continuing medication costs for her treatment.
“When this baby was brought to our hospital, she was battling with serious respiratory problems and a lung infection. For more than a month she was admitted in the specialized neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she was put on a ventilator and given antibiotic assistance. Once she succeeded in fighting off the infection, she was given continued medical and nutritional support to help her gain weight. Given the baby’s condition, she needed long-term medical support. While we decided to bear a major part of the expenses of her treatment, we also launched an appeal through Ketto to help her parents deal with the long-term expenses of medication. We are extremely grateful to Ketto and the people from across the country who came out in support of this baby and voluntarily partook in meeting her cost of treatment,” said Dr Rishi Mangat, Centre Head, Paras Bliss Hospital, Panchkula.
“Everyday millions of people in India struggle against financial constraints to meet their imminent needs for medical treatment, education and so on. At the same time, there are people who are willing to support such causes. We started Ketto with an intent to bring these two dimensions at one platform and we are very happy at the way it has succeeded in financially helping a large number of people, from helping children needing support in acquiring an education to helping patients meet their medical costs to supporting athletes realize their dreams of sporting success. When large number of people come together, they can make remarkable things happen. We are very thankful to the people who regularly support the causes raising funds through Ketto,” said Co-Founder and theater and film actor Kunal Kapoor.
Ketto was founded by Varun Sheth, Kunal Kapoor and Zaheer Adenwala with an aim to establish an easy and accessible platform for people to raise funds for multifarious initiatives – from social and personal causes to creative endeavors. In its first year, Ketto raised INR 4.5 million for 18 campaigns. Among Ketto's most successful campaigns is the Olympic Gold Quest, an NGO that has supported several Indian athletes and helped them realize their dreams of representing India at international sporting events.
According to Dr Krishan Yadav, HOD and Consultant, Neonatology, Paras Bliss Hospital, Panchkula, the baby girl was in a precarious condition when she was brought at the hospital, battling a serious respiratory complication due to her premature birth.
“In a premature baby, the part of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that controls breathing is not yet mature enough to allow nonstop breathing. This causes large bursts of breath followed by periods of shallow breathing or stopped breathing. The medical term for this is apnea of prematurity, or AOP. For treatment the baby has to be kept under neonatal observation with access to IV antibiotics for pharmacological management and also has to be supported with Intermittent Mandatory Ventilation (IMV). Thankfully, the baby is now stable and has reached a weight of 900 grams,” said Dr Krishan Yadav, HOD, Neonatology, Paras Bliss Hospital, Panchkula.
