NEW DELHI, Feb 16:
Fourteen-year-old Rohit Kumar, who had been forced to stay at AIIMS for over a year for want of a portable ventilator and other related accessories after he underwent a spine surgery, can now finally go home.
Courtesy, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which has offered financial assistance of Rs two lakh to the boy for buying equipment.
Minister of State in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, came to know about the boy’s case and got Rs 2 lakh released which Rohit needed to be able to go home.
When contacted, the Minister said,” Immediately after learning about Rohit’s condition, I asked my staff to get in touch with the family to help him.” No one should suffer for want of money like this,” he said.
Singh, who is an accomplished doctor of Diabetes by profession, said, he used to treat poor patients for free while he was practising and would provide free Insulin to destitute children suffering from Diabetes.
“We must do something for atleast one needy person every day of our life and that is like going to temple. That has been my mantra for past so many years. It was one such deed,” he said.
A letter confirming payment of Rs two lakh help from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to Rohit has been issued by the PMO, the Minister said.
Rohit, a native of Siwan district in Bihar, sustained spinal chord damage after a fall.
He underwent a spine surgery and should have been discharged by January last year.
“After the surgery, Rohit is paralysed neck down and needs a ventilator to breathe. He belongs to a very poor family who cannot afford to buy such a costly equipment, which costs around Rs 1 lakh and thus he is admitted in the neurosurgery-3 ward of the AIIMS for over a year,” said Dr Deepak Agarwal, Professor, Neurosurgery department at AIIMS.
The family has rented a room near Badarpur and keeps visiting Rohit.
“We are yet to withdraw the money and then the process of buying the ventilator will be initiated,” Agarwal said. (PTI)
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