(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.