Free heart surgery performed for 100 poor people

Bangalore, Oct 13 (UNI) Funded by the 'Have a Heart Foundation', as many as 100 under-privileged and poor people have undergone free heart surgery at the Narayana Hrudayalaya, a super speciality heart institute here.

Speaking to newspersons here yesterday, Mr Manohar, who runs the Seva Free Clinic which facilitated the surgeries, said the surgery expenses would be met by the donations of members of 'Have a Heart Foundation'.

''The programme was intended to use small amounts of money to make a difference to some poor family who was at its wits' end on how to pay for the surgery of some dear one. Thanks to a handful of concerned people, as many as 100 lives have been saved, most of them bread winners of their family.'' The Seva Clinic, a non-profit organisation, was the brain child of Dr K S Satish, one of the leading cardiologists in the city. It had numerous donors who support with subscription of Rs 1,000 to Rs 25,000 each per month.

Dr Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya, who was also present, said there were hundreds of young people in the country who need a bypass surgery desperately, but could not afford it. ''Out of an estimated 24 lakh people who need heart surgery every year, only 60,000 surgeries are performed...this speaks volumes of the problem.'' Heart surgery was still a distant dream for over 92 per cent of the world population, he added.

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