By Bismha Nayyer
In a far flung village of Veero- Sindh , a woman can be seen with a pitcher on her head , hands on her back to support her 9 months pregnant belly when labor pains started and she was rushed to the Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad. As evident from her lean and bony physique, mother was severe malnourished.
In the remote areas of Sindh where laale and her husband Wariel lived, poverty prevails and food supplies were scarce
The food which was not even suffice to full fill the nutritional requirement of a one person, laale-her pregnant self was sharing it with her 4 children and her husband leaving her and fetus malnourished. Despite all odds, 30 years old laale gave birth to her 5th child-a son, on September 30th, 2016. Joyful to have a son after 4 daughters, the parents couldn’t feel relieved because doctor gave them the bad news. Laale had blood group O-negative while her son had O-positive and that generated Rhesus disease. In which antibodies formed in mother’s blood start attacking baby’s red blood cells leading to hemolytic or Rh disease of the newborn. This could be life-threatening for the baby. To counter this life-threatening condition having an injection of a medication called anti-D immunoglobulin is un escapable.
Wariel patient’s husband, a farm worker earning Rs. 5000 per month couldn’t afford an injection of Rs. 4,750
Seeing the desperate look on the child's parents, Dr. Mehwish murad requested Heartfile Health Financing (HHF) on October 3rd, 2016 to consider this case for financial aid. HHF quickly mobilized its assessment and verification team in Hyderabad to conduct a socio-economic evualuation of the patient. Upon successful completion of the assessment, the patient was found eligible for full assistance to underwrite the cost of the treatment. Latest follow up upon the patient’s mother shows that her son is well after receiving injection. There is no doubt that the generous contribution of Heartfile Health Financing donors saved laale son’s life and more others. Within 30 years of her life span, Laale was already a mother of 5 children.
Not being able to feed one person properly, the financial deprived couple, living in a chappar under awful hygienic conditions, brought 5 lives into to this world just to have a son after 4 daughters. This act will serve nothing other than to increase the world population and so do the segmentation of necessities of life like health, food, hygiene increases.
This case is a constant reminder that how much the need to work on accessible health choices particularly in rural areas of developing countries , is more important than ever and the role of the torch bearers like hertfile cannot be foreseen in this current scenario!
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