General Medical Help

Paying for a prescription for Abhirami’s sick child

In India, someone who is sick and poor may be seen by a doctor without a charge, but they will then have to pay for any medicines that are prescribed. The poorest people are unable to do this. For many years, Tom Sutherland has helped such people by paying for their prescriptions. No money changes hands at this point; instead, Tom writes a short note to the pharmacist saying that he will pay. HHI then sends out money each month, which Tom uses to pay off the debt to the pharmacist. It seems a cumbersome and inefficient system, but it has the great advantage that it ensures that the patient gets their prescription (rather than spending money on something else) and it is not open to abuse. Typically the cost of the prescription is about £1, but to a poor Indian it is a lot of money which they cannot afford.

Making a contribution to Mohammed's heart operation

Other medical problems are more expensive. Heart problems are common in India: for some reason Indians are genetically predisposed to heart disease, and this is becoming worse as they adopt more westernised diets. Typically a major heart operation will cost about £2000. Tom helps these people to apply for grants and subsidies, but if this is not enough then he will ask us if we can help them. We are often able to provide a contribution; they then collect money from friends and relatives, and maybe take out a loan, so as to meet the rest of the cost. This is a cost-effective way of helping such people.

Helping people with operations

On the right is a picture of Agash showing the scar from his heart operation, paid for by HHI

A feature of Indian hospitals is that a patient must go with a "bystander", who will act as a nursing assistant, prepare food, buy medicines, clean them, and fetch a nurse if the patient needs one. If a patient cannot provide a bystander, they are refused admission, however desperate they are. We were alerted to this by Santhosh, who was involved in a motor accident and was dumped outside the hospital with severe injuries; he had no bystander and could not move, so he stayed there for some time, with ants eating at his wounds. We were able to provide a bystander, and he was able finally to get treated. Since then we have provided a bystander to many patients. This has the advantage of providing employment to someone who would otherwise be destitute, and is also a very cost-effective way of enabling people to get the hospital treatment that they need. The picture to the left is Kayshevan, our first bystander.

Santhosh’s injured leg. It has required many operations and now he is slowly getting back to a normal life.

There are many other people who are helped back to health by HHI. One of the more remarkable is Sanilkumar. Sanilkumar, a Hindu, fell off his motorcycle, fracturing his skull severely, and some of it had to be removed. Initially a plastic replacement was provided, whilst his original skull was kept in an incision by his stomach until it could be reattached. Unfortunately the plastic insert became infected and the original skull caused such severe hiccups that it had to be removed; an expensive titanium plate was needed to replace the plastic one, and HHI was able to help with the cost. For a time there was no improvement; but then he started to go to a church and to pray to Jesus, at which point healing started. As a result of this he has become a Christian.

Sanilkumar with his original skull and the first plastic replacement