2010-12-29 13:25:26

Priest’s heart mission comforts young patients


(December 29, 2010) A Catholic priest has been helping heart patients, especially children, in central India, for the past seven years. “Today, my daughter is leading a normal life because of” Father Chinnappan Ponnusamy, says Adique Khan, father of Amreen Banu who underwent a heart surgery with the priest’s help. The nine-year-old Muslim girl was the 165th patient the Bhopal archdiocesan priest has helped so far. He said he started the unique mission after a shocking experience in a government hospital in Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh state. He met there a girl with a hole in heart. Her parents struggled to find funds for her surgery without much success. The priest says that only two among his beneficiaries were Christians, the others were Hindus and Muslims, from babies to an 18-year-old. Anil Kumar Sahu, who assists Father Ponnusamy, says the priest not only arranges funds for surgery but accompanies the patients to the hospital. The priest said he does so because patients have problems with language and administrative matters. “Most patients are illiterate and come from very poor social background,” he said. Khan, who earns less than 100 rupees from his cycle repair work a day, said his family owes to the Catholic priest’s for his daughter’s new lease of life. His daughter’s surgery required 300,000 rupees, but the priest arranged free surgery in a private hospital in Karnataka, southern India. Now the girl is able go to school regularly. Sahu said that now some 10 patients await surgery. Among them is a 100-day old of daughter of Purushotam Patel, a farmer, who is hopeful of full recovery for his daughter.







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