Meera Charity Contribution Details

               

Its taking a longer time to open our association account . In the meantime,I have included info to contribute to Meera's Charity below. Please read carefully and make sure the contribution goes to Meera's ICU care. please email Meera or me for questions.

Prabhakar

MANIPAL EDUCATION & MEDICAL FOUNDATION

                                          1756 North Wilmot Street

                                          Chicago, Illinois  60647

Manipal Education & Medical Foundation is recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as an I.R.C. Section 501(c) (3) tax exempt organization.

Applicable for people looking for US tax exemption.

 

2.    US Tax # is 23-7105960

 

 

3.       Bankers

           MB Financial Bank - Routing number 071 001 737.

 

credit: Manipal Education & Medical Fnd. - account # 162 000 7436.

               

Contact Person

Joseph Kure

Private Banking

MB Financial Bank

800 W. Madison

Chicago, IL. 60607

  

The donor cheque can be mailed to above address or direct transfer effected, under advise to our secretary

and Board member-  Nikhil Verma, at the Chicago Address.

 A receipt will be issued from that office, in due course

For Indian transfers :
The funds are to be credited to a/c no 016901000488 of Manipal Foundation with ICICI bank Indranagar,Bangalore. May be transferred via NEFT/IFSC/RTGS. Code is ICIC0000169.

If any one sends money ,I request them to mail  vrinda.raman@manipalgroup.com & inform her that the amount is meant for PICU . They will otherwise use it for other charities. Also please mark a copy to me ramakrishnan13@hotmail.com. This is for me to keep track that the money is being doubled.

About the Photos

The photos were taken at the Aquarium at KL and in Penang in Oct, when I went to visit Malaysia with my father and nephew. My father grew up in Malaysia and came to India after age 14. So it was an emotional trip for him to return to his city of Penang. Nagarajan and Mohanan were the most gracious hosts and it felt so great to travel with Naga for a week and then spend a weekend with Mohanan. 

In India, Malaysia is often promoted as a shopping place and more importance is given to Singapore. I was pleasantly surprised by the natural beauty of Malaysia and the national parks in Malaysia. It would be a crime not to mention the food in Malaysia. Street hawkers make food 24/7 and Naga the epicurean was always in search of the best street food. My only regret in Penang was that we; Guna(Naga's friend), Naga and myself, could not eat at the Thai food place we went in search of at 2.30 AM. It was closed.

Thanks again Naga and Mohanan.

Meera's Charity Request - Part 2

Please read Part 1

Case 1 (photos 1 and 2)

7 year old presented following attempted care at 3 different hospitals

Presenting complaints; fever for 7 days, rash for 2 days, dyspnea and anuria for 24 hours

Above problems started following needle injury to Lateral aspect of Rt Knee

Significant findings ; Cellulitis over thigh , rash all over body, cardiovascular collapse and worsening respiratory distress.

Initial Resuscitation- Intubation, invasive monitoring,Fluid management, vasopressor support(Norad and Dopamine). Included CPR for cardiac arrest on Day 1.

Provisional diagnosis- Toxic Shock Syndrome

Subsequent course-  Debridement of cellulitis, Blood culture positive for Beta strep, Antibiotics(Ceftriaxone, Amikacin and Clindomycin),unresponsive to Steroids . Complications included ARDS (treated with ventilation for 10 days , inclusive of high frequency ventilation for 5 days), Acute renal failure (treated with SLED for 20 days).

Patient fully recovered without loss of digits, normalised renal function and was discharged after 40 days. Since the father was a driver and could not afford this care (Rs 7000/per day), Meera's team had to raise over 3 lakhs.

Case 2 (photo 3)

13 year old from TN presented with fever for 10 days, anuria and dyspnea for 24 hours

significant findings ; Shock , Respiratory  Distress, Renal failure, Hepatosplenomegaly

Course- Intubated /Ventilated with high PEEP 18 , currently 10

             Vasopressors- shock resolved

             Renal F resolved

Workup negative for cause initially, later H1N1 was confirmed. Pt did well and was discharged recently.

This pt family is from a low socioeconomic category and also under severe  financial difficulties since another sibling in the family was in an accident a year ago and is currently in a vegetative state.

Prabhakar

Meera's Charity Request - Part 1

Meera works in a  corporate teaching hospital, but is  able to provide help for the poor patients who come to her PICU. She has been working hard to help the needy and is looking for help. Whatever help we could provide will depend on the the contributions we receive. Once we start the bank account, I will send in the information.

Meera has a clear picture of her needs in this endeavour. Please read her letter she usually sends to her sponsors. In time, I  think we will be able to help Meera with contributions, but she reports that any equipment or near expiration date devices(like CVP lines , LMA ) would be put to good use. If anyone has any other ideas or venues to raise money , please comment.

Meera has been able to raise a third of the required amount on her own. Any fund she raises will be matched by the management. 

Part1 is the letter and Part 2 will be the next blog entry with a couple of cases from her PICU.

PART - 1  Meera's Letter (Unedited)

Although I  work in a corporate hospital,the Management has always let me take care of poor patients. In my earlier stay in India,I was fortunate to have Rohini Nilekani sponsor all my needy patients.

However now she is sponsoring some other venture & I am looking for sponsors to help us have 3 free beds in the ICU -ie 1095 patient days .

About our ICU:

PICU  is a 8  bedded unit (becoming a 10  bedded unit next month) which provides care for patients from 1 month to 17 years of age. They suffer from varying illness such as cancer, trauma, liver failure, kidney failure, sepsis , ARDS etc . We have about 550 admissions/year .

The ICU mortality is 6%. If we discount the mortality within the first 24 hours it fall down to about 3% .  Most patients are referred to us in extremis. It is very gratifying to see patients do well despite various limitations. (We have Conventional ventilators-Servo-i ,HFO- Sensor Medics,CVVHD, Plasmapharesis etc)

I have doctors and nurses to assist me so that as a team we  strive to provide excellent care .We have paediatric Critical Care Fellowship which is recognised by National Board. (We are one of the 3 programs in the country to have a FNB)  

The main limitation that we find in our ongoing care is the financial part. Even to run a not for profit organization we need funds. Since all admissions to the PICU are an emergency the family is emotionally and financially ill prepared for the same. Further more parents of most of the children are young and do not have any savings to fall back on. Most do not have insurance and have to choose between an ICU like ours where the care and support is state of the art but unaffordable and government hospitals .In a country like ours I don't think the government can spend on ICU care. However it does not mean it is not important .

The following is the financial details of our ICU

Average cost of care in the PICU for a ventilated patient  -                Rs 15,000/day

Average cost of care in the PICU for an unventilated patient -            Rs 7,000/day

Average cost includes – Bed charges, Oxygen charges, investigations, Procedure and Consultation charges and Ventilator charges (for ventilated patients).

The hospital has agreed to waive off the Bed charges and Procedure and Consultation charges. It has further agreed to provide a 50% concession in Oxygen, Ventilation and Lab charges. This will result in a concessional rate of Rs 7,000/day for ventilated patients and Rs. 3,500/day for unventilated patients admitted under this arrangement. For most families even this is a huge amount and hence to make care completely free except for medicines we need to raise about Rs 75,00,000.(Assuming all the patients need ventilation )

Any fund that will be raised by the employees of the organisation will be matched by Manipal Foundation (NGO arm of the organisation)

I assure you your faith will not be misplaced. Your help will not only help these patients but will help me to train junior staff  as well . We are starting Critical care nursing as well from Jan .Proper education is the only way forward .

regards

Meera

Photo Caption - fruits of labour

A Close Shave

We should be glad that we had the reunion in August when it was still the old KMC. Walking through this construction site would not be nostalgic. I was alerted by Dr Rao and MPV of these changes to our old stomping ground. Its very hard for administrators to see  a nice garden  and  not imagine a big building in its place.  I wonder if they transplanted the trees. I wouldn't bet on it.

Prabhakar

Deepavalli

The Kmc1984reunion blog wishes its readers a Happy Deepavalli. We will take a 10 days break and when we come back  will blog about the charitable initiative .

Chennai has a number of malls and many more in construction and most of the famous stores in Chennai have branches all over  the city. But T.Nagar is still  the place to shop. I would think the thrill of bargaining and haggling over the price is the main attraction here. 

 Hiding in the news was the fact that 150 people(including children) were lost from their groups that day. Its concerning to me that this was not a front page news headline. The news also reported that the public announcements by the police were drowned out by the honking and all other  sounds of the city.

We  hope all were reunited and wishing them a safe Deepavalli.

From The Annals of Improbable Research

Though most of you  look forward to the Nobel prize awards, I follow the Ig Nobel Awards which is given out a week before the  Nobel prize announcements. The Ig Nobel awards is an annual exercise in irreverence that celebrates research that " cannot, or  should not , be repeated". These are given to scientists whose results first make people laugh, and then make them think.

The event took place in early October, at Harvard University in Cambridge,US  and was hosted by the Harvard based journal -Annals of Improbable Research. This year ceremony was covered by most newspapers , even The Hindu and Indian Express.

Presenting the winners;

1) Veterinary Medicine Prize - Catherine Douglas at Newcastle University School of Agriculture for the groundbreaking discovery that giving cow's names such as Daisy increases their milk yield.

2) Peace prize- Awarded for research on whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full beer bottle or an empty one. Bolliger at Univ of Bern, Switzerland  accepted the prize for "Empty beer bottles are sturdier than full ones". However the reseachers conceded that the both full and empty bottles are theoretically capable of fracturing the human neurocranium.

3) Public health Prize- Awarded to Bodnar of Illinois, US for patenting a bra that, in an emergency , can be converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the owner and one for a needy passerby.

4) Medicine Prize- Donald Unger  a physician in California, US  who cracked the knuckles of his left hand  but never those of his right( Control), every day for 60 years to investigate whether it caused arthritis. Dr Unger, now 83 years reported that there's not the slightest sign of arthritis in his left hand.

5) Biology Prize -  Fumiaki Taguchi et al from Kitasato Univ Graduate school of medical sciences , Japan demonstrated that kitchen waste can be reduced by more than 90% by using bacteria extracted from giant panda excrement. Taguchi suspected that panda excrement must contain bacteria capable of breaking down even the hardiest of foods because of panda bear's vast consumption of bamboo,

6) Literature Prize- Awarded to the entire police force of Ireland for issuing more than 50 penalties to a man they supposed to be the most persistent driving offender in Ireland. Mr Prawo Jazdy , was the name , which in Polish means "Driver's License". An investigation done subsequently revealed that that the officers had mistakenly taken down the wrong details from the offender's  Polish driver's license.

Hope you enjoyed this as much I did. There is more, if  you google for Ig awards.

Happy Deepavalli.

Prabhakar

The Front Page

Dr Sankarabarathi operated on a 7 month old  suffering from a rare condition called Nesidioblastosis. An article with Sankarabarathi's  photo and his accomplishment appeared in The Hindu on Sept 27th. This condition is rare cause of persistent hyperinsulinemic  hypoglycemic in infancy. These patients require continuous feeding/glucose supplementation, even  during sleep.

A subtotal pancreatectomy ,  95% of the pancreas was surgically removed by Sankarabarathi's team. Patient continues to do well. 

If others have any accomplishment the would like to share, you can email it to me.

Prabhakar