admin
India
healthysoch
New Delhi, January 25, 2020
The family of the first known Indian national afflicted with the coronavirus and battling for life has reached out to India for financial help reports The Mint.
Unable to fund ₹1 crore needed for Preeti Maheshwari’s treatment in China, her brother Manish Thapa, an employee at Amazon, Bengaluru has reached out to the Indian embassy in Beijing for financial help. He has also got in touch with a healthcare crowd funding platform in India to arrange for her hospital expenses.
Maheshwari, a primary art school teacher at the International School of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, is suffering from coronavirus pneumonia, type 1 respiratory failure, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and septic shock. She is undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit at Shekou Hospital in Shenzhen, China, and is on external respiratory support, ventilators, dialysis and blood purification process.
Currently the treatment is costing 10 lakh Chinese Yuan which is Rs. 1 crore in Indian currency. The family is also considering shifting her to India for further treatment if needed.
Comments: In these situations, Indian Government should take the responsibilities of treatment of such cases and get them treated in the country where they get infected. If the same is not done Indians getting corona virus infection in China will supress their information about fever and cough symptoms, take anti fever and anti cough medicines to dodge the immigration. This will be much more costly to the country than to treat people like Preeti.
An urgent policy decision is needed in this regard. When the country can support all Indians to get citizenship from neighbouring countries during hardship this policy will be a goodwill policy for Indians trapped in china in need of treatment.
Author : Dr KK Aggarwal , President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA
