Shillong April 22: Fifteen children, who underwent a free cardiac screening at the Ganesh Das hospital here on Friday, will receive free surgery and intervention at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals, Guwahati.

This was informed by Paediatric Cardiologist of Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, Dr C.S. Muthukumaran, after the free paediatric cardiac screening camp that saw 50 children come forward for the screening for heart ailments.

The screen camp was organized by the Department of Paediatric Cardiology and Paediatric Cardiac Surgery of Apollo Children’s Hospital, Chennai and Apollo Hospitals, Guwahati in collaboration with the Directorate Health Services, Government of Meghalaya.

He informed that 3 of the surgeries and interventions will be done in Guwahati while the other 12 will need to come for intervention in Chennai.

The screening camp was held for the BPL children of Meghalaya between the age of 0 to 16 years at the Ganesh Das Hospital Shillong, with the main objective to reach out to poor children requiring lifesaving heart surgery.

Most common birth defect among children is heart disease, the main cause is usually due to uncontrolled pregnancy of a mother, alcohol consumption and even genes, Dr. Muthukumaran said.

The reason Meghalaya has more children with heart disease is due to lack of facilities in every government sector, he further said.

When ask about the financial support to the BPL children undergoing surgery and intervention, Dr. Muthukumaran said that Meghalaya Government has a health insurance Scheme, RBSK has got an insurance scheme NHM and other will be funding.

He also informed that the paediatric cardiac program is run with the help of donations from the Save a Child’s Heart Initiative (SASHI Trust) run by Apollo Hospital, crowd funding platforms and kindness of the Rotary Club of Madras East (RCME).