In a gesture of gratitude towards Akshaya, the 11-year-old girl who donated part of her surgery funds to the flood relief efforts in Kerala, the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCITIMST) in Kerala has offered to perform her surgery free of cost.
According to a report in the Times of India, which quotes Dr Asha Kishore, Director of SCTIMST, "We learned that she had donated a portion of the money that she saved for her surgery towards the relief fund in Kerala. We are trying to track her and help her with the surgery.”
Akshaya, who hails from Komarapalayam near Thanthonimalai in Karur district of Tamil Nadu, lives with a congenital heart condition that worsened last November.
Speaking to TNM earlier, her mother Jothimani, a daily wage labourer and single parent, said, “She wanted to help. I did ask her, ‘How can we, struggling to make ends meet as it is, contribute during such a time?’ But she was determined that she’d donate, even if only a little. She had severe breathing problems and at one point couldn’t walk, and her body would turn blue because she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. We had to carry her to a private hospital for treatment. Her first surgery was done in November 2017.”
Akshaya’s father passed away six years ago and she has been living with her grandparents along with her mother and sisters.
Jothimani sought the help of her friend to collect funds online for the surgery. “We requested people to contribute through Facebook and were able to raise Rs 3.5 lakh for the surgery,” she said.
“We’ve started crowdfunding again and we’ve collected Rs 20,000 so far,” said Jothimani adding, “We know how important contributing even a couple of thousands is. We hope our contribution will be of some help to those in Kerala.”