The passports are brand new with the Indian visas being stamped last Thursday. Hectic preparations were underway to take the ‘Bubble Baby of Sri Lanka’ adopted wholeheartedly by the people, to Chennai, India for the life-saving bone marrow transplant that he needs.
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| Dr. Jagathie Fonseka |
Nurse Nisansala |
This has been made possible due to the overwhelming response from you our dear Sunday Times readers who made the donations flow to the fund set up for baby Sanjana Praveen Shivanka who is suffering from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) Syndrome.
The collection as of Friday, September 3 was a huge Rs. 5,068,390 million with a large donation of Rs. 5.5 lakhs coming from a foreign bank based in Sri Lanka.
As donations rolled in, the doctors of the Human Genetics Unit of the Colombo Medical Faculty were overjoyed when their efforts to raise funds for the baby by writing to charities worldwide paid off and First Hand Foundation (www.firsthandfoundation.org) based in Kansas, America promised US$ 20,000.
“This was purely on e-mail communication,” said Human Genetic Unit’s Medical Officer Dr. Jagathie Fonseka overcome by emotion as Genetic Nurse P. K. D. S. Nisansala with whom she handled the paperwork nodded in mute agreement.
As baby Shivanka’s parents K.B.N. Damayanthi and K.W. Neil Anura Shantha of Dippitigala, Lellopitiya in Ratnapura packed their bags and made ready to depart to the Apollo Hospital, came another pleasant surprise with SriLankan Airlines stepping in to give three free tickets to them.
Referring to the arrangements in Chennai, Dr. Fonseka explained that Apollo Speciality Hospital’s Consultant in Paediatric Haematology Dr. Revathi Raj will be handling baby Shivanka.
An ambulance will meet them at the Chennai airport to take them to the hospital where Damayanthi and Neil can be in the room allocated for baby Shivanka, Dr. Fonseka said.
So as they take wing to Chennai, please keep your fingers crossed and hold a Bodhi pooja, light a candle or say a prayer for “our baby” for the bone marrow transplantation to be a success. |
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