Gift of Life in India
Cynde Covington, Kim Waters, and I began the day with a very amazing young Rotarian, Dr. Nischal Pandey. Nischal, Kim, Cynde, and I have been Facebook friends some time, and the three of us scheduled this time to speak about his work. Dr. Nischal specializes in cardio surgery here in New Delhi. He is from Dokati District, Ballia Uttar, Pradesh, a village east of New Delhi, over a thousand kilometers away. At only 34 years old, he has walked an amazing walk of life already, here in India.
Some years ago, after he had the opportunity to study medicine on a Rotary Foundation scholarship, he saw a child come into the hospital who needed coronary related surgery. Dr. Nischal told his superiors that he would donate a month of his wages to do this corrective surgery. The hospital agreed and the child had the operation completed. As time goes by, Dr. Nischal has engaged other doctors, community leaders, and now they are completing a surgery which costs approximately $US75 thousand in the States, and costs approximately $US5 thousand here in India. But, he and his volunteers are conducting the surgeries for less than $US1500, because of the donations to the program, monetary, in supplies, in hands on work. To date, they have completed over 3 thousand corrective cardio surgeries. Initially, Nischal called on The Rotary Foundation for Matching Grants, but now is also using Global Grants for further funding of the program.
Kim asked Dr. Nischal how he was attracted to the practice of medicine. He allowed us to tape his humble response to the question. To see and hear his answer, CLICK HERE to open another window and the YouTube video.
Dr. Nischal and his program concentrate on primarily children afflicted with a cardiac condition who need only one corrective surgery to bring their life back near to normal. This concentration of effort is due to the fact that many of these children come from villages with no medical care. Once the children have their surgery, they need to be able to return to their village without followup.
Dr. Nischal received the END POLIO NOW Regional Service Award for a Polio-Free World in 2015-16.
To learn more about this fantastic program, go to Gift of Life.
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ReplyDeleteThank you RIDN David Stovall, DG Kim and PDG Cynde for inviting at breakfast and giving opportunity to speak about some of our work. It's a great learning always to meet senior leaders like you all and try to serve better.
ReplyDeleteThat's a privilege always to have so many affectionate Rotary mentors around you who keep inspiring.
Apart it's pleasure to meet Facebook friends in person, great feeling.