Health program
1% of the Indian population have heart problems which can be corrected definitively by surgeries. The cost of these operations can be reach 3 000 US$ or 2400€, according to the heart’s malformation, so seriousness of the operation.
Evenly, Volontariat organizes in its premises free Cardiologic camps with a team of doctors managed by Professor Balakrishnan, specialist of surgeries for small children, and who realize all the surgeries of this programme. Each time, through information given to the Press and the local paediatricians, we welcome more than 50 families, each one with a child having cardiac problem. For half of them, a surgery is necessary, for some ones very quickly.
At the beginning, all the surgeries were performed at Sri Ramachandra Medical college of Chennai (SRMC). This hospital does, yearly, up to 1000 cardiac operations, half of them on children and infants. Now the Dr Bala , as we call him informally, is also conducting Cardiologic camps and operating at Vijay Hospital, Pondicherry Heart Foundation, which reduces the cost of any intervention.
The social and economic back-ground of the family is an important criterion for our decision to support the surgery (and so find donors!). When it’s possible, the family is sharing a part of the expenses. Helps can be given by the Chief Minister of Puducherry Territory as well as from the Prime Minister of India. On this Scheme, Dr Bala and his team work freely, but the total cost of an operation may be high because surgery needs highly specific and expensive apparatus, one time used, and because of the hospitalisation fees.
Obviously, the programme cannot have a predictable budget, so Volontariat depends on the donations given by the European committees, individuals or other NGOs. In 2006 the French organization, La Chaîne de l’Espoir, specialized in such surgeries, supported the cost of three operations. On January 2007, Volontariat signed an agreement with La Chaîne de l’Espoir and Pondicherry heart Foundation with the result that 28 babies and infants were operated during the year. The programme continues in 2008.
From the beginning of the programme until 2007 end, Volontariat and its medical and financial partners realized 117 surgeries on 89 children. 84 of these children were saved through this programme and thanks to its donors. We had five deaths only, which is an excellent result for the team of Doctors at Chennai and Pondicherry.
