Three-year-old Sarika (name changed) would most of the time be sick. She would be thin and sickly. According to her mother, Renuka, Sarika would have fever and cough almost two to three times a month. The parents, father Vaibhav and the Renuka also noticed that Sarika was not gaining weight.

“We felt that something was wrong with her and therefore we took her to a private clinic around 10 kilometers from our house. The doctor checked the little Sarika and then said that it looked like a bit complex problem and referred her to a bigger hospital across the street where a specialist would visit from Pune often,” Renuka said.

Sarika and her family are residents of a small village in the district of Satara in the state of Maharashtra. The village is so remote that the district headquarters is itself is around 80 kms away. For any medical needs the family would visit a small town around 10 kms away.

Sarika’s family is not well off. His father is the sole breadwinner of the household and works as a labourer. The family’s income is around Rs 10,000($125) a month and that helps in making the both ends meet. 

Sarika’s mother Renuka is a homemaker taking meticulous care of the home and the family. In fact it was her who was with Sarika the whole time during her treatment and did all the running around, while Vaibhav was tending to the other members of the family.

“Once the doctor told us to meet the Pune Specialist who was visiting, we went straight to him,” Renuka said.

The specialist saw Sarika and performed some tests and came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with Sarika's little heart and that they would have to perform a surgery.

“We did not understand much, but the specialist said something like there was a constriction in the heart and using a balloon the constriction has to be cleared. He told us to visit Pune, where he said he would do the operation himself. He also warned us that if we delay then Sarika would die,” she said.

The parents knew that any operation connected with the heart would cost a lot of money and they were not sure how well the operation would be conducted in Pune, so they were at a loss to understand what to do next.

“We went back to the doctor of the smaller hospital who had referred us to this bigger hospital. The doctor told us not to go to Pune but to visit Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s hospital in Bangalore. The doctor told me that he had sent one patient from the area and he returned after a surgery, healthy. The doctor also told one more thing which surprised us. He told that Baba’s hospital provided all treatment free of all charges to all the people irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion and nationality. We wanted to go as soon as possible, but we did not know how to proceed. But by Baba’s Grace things fell into place,” Vaibhav said.

Vaibhav’s elder brother was in the Army and posted in Bangalore. They then called him and asked him to find out about Baba’s hospital. His brother Chander vouched for the Baba’s hospital telling them that he had heard a lot of good things about Baba’s hospital and they should not delay.

The family made their way to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), Whitefield, Bangalore. After the check up the doctors at the SSSIHMS, Bangalore referred the Sarika to SSSIHMS, Puttaparthi for further treatment. “They told us that both the hospitals were sister hospitals and both were Baba’s hospitals and therefore there was nothing to worry about. Our daughter was not in a good state and she was having intermittent fever for and we were getting worried about her,” Vaibhav said.

“We made our way to Baba’s Puttaparthi hospital and when they saw the child, she was immediately admitted in the Cardiac Care Unit. I do not know what to call it, but I call it Baba’s Grace that the fever, which was coming and going, completely disappeared the moment she was admitted in the hospital and it never returned after that,” Renuka said.

The Cardiologists at the hospital performed a battery of tests and came to the conclusion that the main artery emerging from the heart had become narrow and that was causing the problem for the child.

The Cardiologists dilated narrow part of the aorta and put a stent in the place. With this the blood flow became better and Sarika health improved and she went back home happy. In the words of her mother, she did not fall ill and she also started gaining weight. Later when she started going to school like all other kids of her age.

“I started feeling better and started going to school again and would not fall sick frequently”, Sarika said.

“The doctors at the SSSIHMS, Puttaparthi, told us to visit every year for a check up, but we made a mistake that when we saw that she was doing well we ignored the advice and also stopped following the other advice given by the doctors. That was a mistake we committed in hindsight,” Renuka and Vaibhav said.

Because of the ignored advice the problem reoccurred for Sarika after around 13 years. She was playing in her school when her head began to reel. When she told this to her parents, they instinctively felt it had something to do with her heart condition and they made their way to Swami’s hospital in May this year.

After a thorough check up it was found that a complex surgery had to be performed for Sarika to get her health back.

According to Dr. Neelam B Desai, the Head of Department of Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery at SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, Sarika had to undergo a jump graft from the ascending to descending aorta to bypass the coarcatation segment as the patient had underwent stenting for the coarctation initially which was later dilated. Conventionally, the surgery would involve making two incisions on the patient, one in the midline and one in her left chest to join the graft to the aorta. But the patient being young and unmarried, it was decided to take the graft only through the midline. The graft was placed successfully from the ascending to the descending aorta and on table post operative trans-esophageal echo showed a very good laminar flow across. Patient had an uneventful post operative course and was discharged in stable condition. As we could see from the post operative CT scan image, the graft was found to be working well and the patient also became symptomatically better. It is no wonder that the Institute founded by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was able to help Sarika lead a new normal life without having to worry about the financial aspect of surgery.

After the surgery was Sarika was asked to return after three months for a review. They returned for a review in the month of October and everything was found to be in perfect order.

“I am feeling great. I am back to normal. The doctors and the nurses took very good care of me during my stay in the hospital,” Sarika said. This hospital of Baba and the hospital of Baba in Bangalore they both look like temples rather than hospitals. We did not feel we were entering a hospital,” Sarika said.

 “We cannot thank Baba enough for the care He has taken my daughter. Had we gone anywhere outside we would be have been forced to pay almost 10 lakhs for the treatment that we got totally free of charge in Swami’s hospital. The issue is even if we somehow manage to pay the money outside there would be no guarantee that the operation would be performed well. But in Baba’s hospital, we do not have to pay even a rupee and the best doctors and surgeons take care of us as their own kith and kin. Over and above all this is Baba’s Grace on each one of us,” she said. 

Jai Sai Ram