JOIN USVarsity postpones exams to help save student's life
Sri Venkateswara University in Andhra Pradesh has postponed the first semester examinations of its final year students to give time to students to help save their ailing friend.
B Tech (ECE) final year student B Esther Preethi studying at NBKR Institute of Technology in Nellore is in need of a liver transplant which cost Rs 50 lakh.
Preethi is eldest of the three daughters of a poor cab driver at Madanapalle in Chittoor district and her friends have come to her support to seek donations on her behalf to pay to pay the hefty bill.
Her friends have succeeded in getting the examinations postponed by the varsity so that they could go door-to-door to seek financial help from donors.
A few months ago the 20-year-old student complained of severe stomachache and nausea. Local doctors suggested that she needs special attention and referred her to CMC, Vellore.
Preethi’s father David then took her to different hospitals, including one in Bangalore. The driver was crestfallen after VMC doctors declared Preethi’s liver was completely damaged and required transplantation.
Even though David has the same blood group (O+) as Preethi and was ready to donate part of his liver he could not muster Rs 50 lakh to pay for the transplant. He then started knocking doors for donation and appeared on several Telugu channels to plead for help.
About 540 students of final year engineering rushed to the director of the college, V Vijay Kumar Reddy, with a request to allow them to go out and collect donations by skipping classes. Moved by the students’ resolve, the college management, too, offered assistance and allowed the students to collect donations.
The students went around Nellore town and nearby villages for nearly a week but the university announced that exams will begin on November 14.
The students again pleaded with their college management to speak to the vice-chancellor to postpone the examinations on humanitarian grounds.
“This could be the first time that a university has rescheduled examinations to allow students to collect funds for a noble cause,” Reddy said after SVU Vice-Chancellor W Rajendra issued a notification as per the students’ request.
“So far the students and philanthropists collected and donated around Rs 25 lakh, we need another Rs 15 lakh to go for transplantation,” David told Deccan Herald over phone.
But the major problem is that Preeti who is now admitted to the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology here is refusing to accept her father’s liver.
“She says that if any thing happens to me, my other two daughters who are her step sisters will suffer. So we are forced to look for a donor. We have not found a donor yet,” he added.