Model Citizen: His heart goes out to sick children

Seven-year-old Manimegalai and her mother Sumathy were his co-travellers. Suddenly, Sumathy turned around and asked him for directions to Child Trust hospital with tears trickling down her cheeks. When he learnt that Manimegalai was suffering from a rare heart problem, he promised to help them. He knew he had to rush to office but could hardly stop himself from taking up the task.

He admitted the child in the hospital and left. But could not hold back his tears when he saw more than 100 parents of the admitted children trying hard to get food and medicines on time. He came back with more vigour to help them with food which he had cooked, all by himself. Soon he became a known face there and it was then one of the doctors suggested him to get in touch with trusts and philanthropists to help the needy instead of spending his entire salary on them. The doctor also connected him to Women’s Welfare Syndicate, Ekam Foundation and the Ratan Tata Trust. With the help of the trustees and other warm persons, he has so far helped nearly 250 children to undergo valve replacement, repair and treat conditions such as Atrial Septum Defect and Ventricular Septal Defect. Money to undergo tests for such conditions, transportation to the right lab and finding the right surgeon was a far cry for the parents of these young ones. This is where Rajkumar gives them a helping hand. Seeing his enthusiasm, some of his like-minded friends too started getting food and medicines for the patients. 

During one such visit to the Rajiv Gandhi hospital, when he was escorting a patient for a scan, he met 17-year-old Padma from Vriddachalam. Her mother told him that they have been waiting to repair a valve in her heart for nearly 8 months due to paucity of funds. “I should say Padma is lucky because as soon as I told the trust members and friends about it, funds flowed in and I arranged for the surgery at MMM hospital”, he said. 

Today he is married to her for and it was she who wanted him to help those who needed transplants. Thus, was born Padma Foundation. He learnt about the procedures to be followed with the help of a section officer in the CM cell. So far, he has helped 7 people in undergoing a kidney transplant. “I go according to the seniority list of registered donors at the GH. I help (transportation and identifying labs) the recipient to take up tissue matching and blood tests. As most of them are uneducated they are easily cheated. I give them proper guidance and help them observe government rules”.

His goal is to bridge the gap between doctors and patients in government hospitals and create awareness in patients about the available facilities.