By Dr. Gillian Fyles | Director and Senior Leader, Project India
Newborn babies, two to an incubator, lined the ward as parents waited anxiously beside their babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Words cannot truly describe the pain and suffering that I have witnessed on two visits to the public Children’s Hospital in Hyderabad, India.
This hospital has 500 beds and serves the state of Telangana, with a population of 39 million, for obstetrics, pediatrics, neonatology and maternal fetal medicine. It is one of the largest hospitals of its kind in Asia.
The need is overwhelming. Entire families are adversely impacted by their sick children’s suffering and, until recently, not much could be offered in the way of pain and symptom relief or psychosocial support.
A Pediatric Palliative Care Service based at this hospital has been Dr. Gayatri Palat’s goal for many years. Dr. Palat leads Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration’s initiatives in India.
This goal was realized in July 2019, and today the service includes palliative care physicians, senior nursing staff, and a social worker. The aim is to provide palliative care free of cost for children with life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses. Care is provided within the hospital and in the community through home care and a new children’s hospice in Hyderabad, which opened in May 2021. The Mandara (Hibiscus) Hospice is one of the first children’s hospices in India.
In the last two years, 470 children have been referred to this Pediatric Palliative Care Service. Since opening this May, 32 children have been admitted to the Mandara Hospice.
The successful launch of this Service speaks to the years of advocacy, professionalism and determination on the part of Dr. Palat and her team. Colleagues from Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in Vancouver Canada have been instrumental in assisting with the development and maintenance of this Service.
Please help us further expand this remarkable resource to more children and their families by donating today.
By Dr. Gillian Fyles | Director and India Program Lead, TWCC
By Simon Sutcliffe | President Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration
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