Parents to shift ailing boy to AIIMS after Swaraj offers help

The help offered by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to a four-day-old boy having a serious heart ailment has given a ray of hope to the newborn's parents who have now decided to shift him to AIIMS in Delhi for medical treatment.

On January 23, Devesh Sharma's wife Vandana Sharma gave the birth to a child in a hospital here. The child was born with transposition of greater arteries (TGA) intact ventricular septum condition in heart.

Devesh yesterday appealed the minister on twitter to help for the treatment his son, to which Swaraj responded.

Sharma said they decided to seek help after doctors in Bhopal told that they did not have facilities in the city to conduct operation on the child facing this medical condition.

Following his tweet, Swaraj asked for Sharma's phone number so that her staff could contact him.

Subsequently, the minister's staff contacted Sharma seeking all medical reports of the child and sent them to doctors at Delhi's All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences.

After consultation, Swaraj tweeted last evening that, "We contacted the family and got the medical reports through my Bhopal office. Dr Balram Airan Head Cardiac surgery AIIMS advises an early surgery. "We can organise the baby's surgery in AIIMS Delhi. The family has to decide," she said in another tweet.

After Swaraj's assurance for help, the child's family is now hopeful that he would get better treatment. "We are in the process of shifting the child to New Delhi through air ambulance for further treatment after Sushmaji's tweet. Hopefully, we will shift the child to Delhi by evening," Sharma, who works in a software firm in Bengaluru, told PTI today.

Swaraj is MP from Vidisha Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh. She underwent a kidney transplant operation at AIIMS in Delhi on December 10 last year.

The minister is known for reaching out to Indians stranded across the world through social media.