Coimbatore: Crowd funding helps teen to have stem-cell transplant
In seven days, the campaign was 110 per cent funded.
COIMBATORE: Teenager Sivaprakash was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) at a city-based hospital, that doctors felt required a stem-cell transplant.
His parents Alamelu and Velu who wash and iron clothes for a living, have lost four of their sons to the same disease and did not want to lose Siva.
At the hospital, parents of the 14-year old boy were informed that the cost to treat the disease would run to Rs 20 lakh, an amount they cannot afford.
The family, hails from Erode and the boy was diagnosed of HLH at the hospital. While Siva was getting ready for a counselling session for higher studies after he completed his class ten exam, his abdomen and neck began to swell and he ran a persistent fever.
With their savings and funds from relatives, the boy reached the hospital where on the doctor's advice, parents started a campaign on the online crowd funding platform ‘ImpactGuru.com’ to raise funds to treat their son.
The hospital said cost of stem-cell transplantation was about Rs 20 lakh. When the campaign went live on the crowd funding platform, overnight funds started pouring in, so much so that as many as 1,636 donors contributed funds to the tune of Rs 21,97,250 for the boy’s treatment. In seven days, the campaign was 110 per cent funded. Meanwhile, doctors at the city-based hospital are confident of the boy's recovery.