Auspicious start: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sachin Tendulkar at the bhoomi puja for Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Centre for Child Heartcare and Training in Paediatric Cardiac Skills in Navi Mumbai.
One in 100 children in India is born with heart defects. Though early detection and timely surgery can help them lead normal lives, most such children perish for lack of affordable medical care. India also has the largest number of adults with congenital heart disease. One ray of hope for them is the chain of Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Child Heart Care Hospitals, set up by the Sri Sathya Sai Health and Education Trust. These hospitals have been providing world class paediatric cardiac interventions and surgeries totally free of cost.
The first hospital was opened at Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh in November 2012, a year after Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s samadhi. So far, more than 4,000 paediatric cardiac surgeries have been performed here, all absolutely free. The hospital provides free food and lodging for the parents as well; and through a Gift of Life programme, it mentors each child for life.
The second hospital, an international paediatric cardiac care and research centre, came up at Palwal (Haryana) near Delhi last year. As director of paediatric cardiology Dr Munesh Tomar said, the hospital has India’s first exclusive paediatric cardiac cath lab. She said around 200 children could be spared the surgeon’s knife in the past one year; non-surgical cardiac interventions mended their hearts.
During the inauguration of the Palwal hospital, Baba’s communicator Madhusudhan Rao Naidu had revealed that a similar hospital would be conceived in Mumbai in 2017. True to the word, the bhoomi puja (groundbreaking ceremony) for the third free Sanjeevani Hospital was held in Navi Mumbai on November 26, in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Baba’s devotees from 35 countries.
On the occasion, a US-based innovator, Arvind Thiagarajan, dedicated to India a smart-stethoscope that elicits information that hitherto could be accessed only by an electro- or echo-cardiogram—truly a boon while screening children in villages that lack even electricity. The manufacturer has donated Rs 1 crore worth of smart-steths.
Baba saw health care as a free service, not a revenue generating industry. It is with this in mind that a centre for excellence in health care, called Chaitanyam, has been planned in Thane, Mumbai. With a 30-bed hospital, it will provide training to medical fraternity on humane health care, free of cost. SIDCO has offered 70,000 sq ft of space for it. Chaitanyam will open on August 15, 2018.
Compassion, when coupled with competence and confidence, transmutes ordinary medical care into divine loving care. This love-based, love-laced, therapeutic strategy switches on the patient's own healing ability like nothing else can. This is the secret behind the success of Baba's hospitals. The care team, in turn, experiences the fact that selfless service with love gives supreme satisfaction.
Baba established a free general hospital at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh 60 years ago and a free superspeciality hospital, also at Puttaparthi, 25 years ago. The USP of Baba’s hospitals is that they are world class but have no billing section.
Kolkata is the chosen city for Baba’s fourth paediatric cardiac care hospital and its bhoomi puja will be held next November. And the first cardiac surgery will be performed at the Navi Mumbai hospital on November 25, 2018. Going by the amazing track record of this miracle hospital chain, they simply will happen!
