Crossing border to cure ailing hearts

bangalore: the contrast could not have been more ironical. even as political temperatures rise in india and pakistan and the verbal duel gets increasingly cacophonic in the aftermath of agra, little children with killer heart ailments in pakistan are traveling all the way to south india for succour. it's a victory of the common man over politics. of technology over government rules.these families all got in touch with their indian doctor using the e-mail. notes exchanged, medical reports sent, a diagnosis made. it was time for visa and travel to hindustan for heart repair. a doctor's certificate invariably made matters easier. facilities for paediatric cardiology are almost non-existent in pakistan even as indian surgeons have won world-wide acclaim in the field. that was what perhaps made three couples travel all the way from karachi to bangalore's narayana hrudayalaya to meet a doctor who has just made the garden city his home. for them the country did not matter. nor did the politics. what mattered was the precious life of their child. for the bangalore medical team too, geopolitics was not the consideration. it was life that mattered. dr rajesh sharma, consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at the hospital, is a well-known name in pakistan already, thanks to the many children from across the border whom he treated during his earlier stint with delhi's all india institute of medical sciences (aiims). but bangalore was never going to be that place too far away. says muhammed aslam, who works with a money changer in karachi, "we trust the doctor. we have heard so much about him. our one-year-old son umair needed surgery to save his life. we would do anything in our power to have him treated by the man we thought was best equipped to do so." aslam and his wife saima flew to mumbai and then travelled second class by train into bangalore before taking a cab to narayana hrudayalaya situated on the city's outskirts. ditto with the parents of one-year-old usman, whose parents, izhar khan and nuzhat. "we have trusted the doctor with the life of our son. we believe that he will do his best," they said in unison. says dr devi prasad shetty, chief surgeon at narayana hrudayalaya, "these children needed help as much as our own. politics has no place in all of this." a third child nishat, aged nine, also underwent corrective surgery over the weekend. kargil, agra... nothing quite mattered. it was time for the mending of hearts.