Appeal for help from parents

Here is a personal appeal for help from Sidharth's parents:

We have been blessed with a second baby boy in June. But he was premature by 2 months. he was in ICU for 9 weeks after his birth. He successfully fought and won the battle of his life.

When we were all feeling happy about his discharge from the hospital, we discovered that he is suffering from ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). ROP is a potentially eye blinding disease for premature babies and he is in the advanced 5th stage of ROP.

Retina in both his eyes has been detached. We consulted several doctors in Nellore, Madras (Sankara Nethralaya) and Coimbatore (Aravind Eye Hospital). They told me that the right eye is so bad that it is not operable. Surgery can be performed on the left eye. The probability of success of surgery is 10% in India and success means he will just have ambulatory vision - he can just walk about his room without stumbling across objects.

I started looking at various options of trying to retrieve his vision to the maximum possible extent. It was then that I came across one Dr. Trese, a world renowned ROP specialist. I got in touch with him and he gave us an appointment on Dec 6th.

The consultation, surgery and post operation expenses are going to cost me around $35 - 40K. I am totally helpless here and seek your and all our friends help. It could be a donation, a loan or whatever from your side or from anyone that you know. I would be very much obliged and indebted to you for whatever best you can extend to me. Could I also request you to contact all of our friends and try to raise as much as possible? I dont intend to put you in an emberrassing kind of situation, but then, frankly admitting, my situation is hopeless. At the same time I want to give it my best try to help my baby out.

-- Sridhar and Vinaya