Ritesh Narayan of Nawaka, Nadi could not hold back his emotions and immediately hugged and touched the feet of cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon Dr Sanjeev Kumar Khulbey as a sign of respect for giving his father, Satya Narayan, 67, a renewed lease of life.
The senior Narayan received a life-saving quadruple graft heart bypass surgery at Fiji’s largest state-of-the-art 130-bed specialty private hospital – Pacific Specialist Healthcare (PSH Hospitals) on Thursday, May 29.
Satya Narayan who has had heart problems from a long time was the first recipient of a substantial medical grant under the Pacific Specialist Healthcare administered PSH Foundation that was launched a week prior to Satya Narayan’s coronary artery bypass grafting procedure.
The PSH Foundation was officially launched by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics Professor Biman Chand Prasad on Thursday, May 22 in the presence of a large number of guests from different communities. The first recipient of the medical grant was endorsed by Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji national president Dhirendra Nand who is a board member of the hospital.
An elated Ritesh Narayan told Dr Khulbey that his family members were struggling to fundraise the $30,000 for the heart bypass procedure and the timely assistance from PSH Foundation could not have come at a better time.
In response, Dr Khulbey told the Narayan family that Satya was now out of danger, but the surgery was a very complex one due to the extremely bad condition of his heart.
“I advised Satya Narayan and family that they are lucky to have had the operation done right here in Nadi closer to their home because going overseas would have proved much more expensive and inconvenient due to the condition of Satya’s heart,” Dr Khulbey said.
PSH Hospitals founder and chief executive officer Parvish Kumar said the newly launched PSH Foundation had delivered the promise they made to the Narayan family in just one week’s time and they are now looking forward to helping other needy patients from Fiji and the entire Pacific region through the foundation initiative.
“We are proud to be of service to humanity and are playing our part in saving precious lives one surgery at a time,” Mr Kumar said.
He said patients from Fiji and the greater Pacific community would go through a screening process and have to be endorsed by the board which comprises of representatives from the Great Council of Chiefs, leaders of faith-based organisations and heads of Pacific Health, an elite group of health professionals and officials from governments and respective agencies across the Pacific.
n SHALENDRA PRASAD is a freelance photojournalist based in Nadi, Fiji
