Jamshedpur, March 7 (Source - The Telegraph): Three years after a cadiac surgery and pacemaker implantation, 70-year-old S.K. Sattar is leading a normal life. Like Sattar, there are at least 80 others who can say the same thing, thanks to Rotary Club of Jamshedpur’s pacemaker project.
The club organised a meeting with some of the beneficiaries at Information Centre, Tata Steel Zoological Park, today to highlight the success of the project. .
It also announced that it was ready to help below poverty line (BPL) patients and cover them under the five-year-old project. These people avoid surgeries as they cannot afford pacemakers and as a result, risk their lives.
“I would not have been alive had the Rotary Club not helped me. I had severe breathing problem and the doctors suggested to undergo a pacemaker transplant which would have cost Rs 80,000. After I confessed that I did not have money, a doctor helped me get in touch with the club. Now, I am hale and hearty,” said 65-year-old S.N. Mukherjee, who had ventricular tachycarbia.
Rotary Club has been offering the service for quite sometime, but now it aims to help more needy people in collaboration with Heartbeat International, the US.
“Very few people know about the noble project. The club has a pacemaker committee that selects the beneficiaries based on their financial positions,” said Rotarian Vijaya Bharat, a senior cardiologist at Tata Main Hospital.
