Medical crowdfunding comes to aid of aspiring doctor

PRADIP PATIL thought he could alleviate the suffering of poor communities who get crippled by costs of health and hospitalisation by becoming a doctor. Instead, the farmer’s son is now a patient needing monetary help for a bone marrow transplant – a curative treatment for his cancer – and has resorted to medical crowdfunding.

Two years ago, 19-year-old Pradip’s plan was simple – finish school with good grades, study hard for his NEET entrance exam and get into medical college. The second son of a farmer from a village near Latur, Maharashtra, was single-mindedly following his dream of becoming a doctor and serving communities he had seen debilitated by unaffordable medical expenses.

Diagnosed with cancer

Even his own family has suffered the consequences of a traumatic diagnosis when his mother was found to have breast cancer in 2018 and they had to find over ₹2.5 lakh for her treatment, which continues to today. At the time the Patils were unaware of medical crowdfunding and how it could help ease their financial burden.

Sadly for Pradip, his dreams of becoming a doctor came crashing down when a persistent swelling on his neck would not go down with medication. After an operation at a hospital in Latur, a biopsy of the lump revealed the teenager had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system that severely compromises the body’s defence against infections.

This was a real blow to Pradip. Not only did he have to stop his studies and put the future fortunes of his family on hold, but also find the funds to move to Mumbai with his older brother, Rajeshwar, for treatment – first at Tata Memorial and then at Jaslok Hospital.  His mother too is under the team of consultants at Jaslok Hospital.

Doctors give hope for cure

Now 18 months and several lakhs of hospital expenditure later, the doctors have given the Patil family some hope. They say Pradip will recover in a month if he undergoes a bone marrow transplant immediately – at the cost of ₹15 lakh. A lymphoma, like Pradip has, affects the blood cells and by replacing them with new ones from a donor is a path taken for a cure after traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation have failed.

“When the doctors told me I have cancer my whole life came apart. I had so many plans for my future. Now, I feel like a burden on my family. There are days when my brother skips meals and lies to me that he isn’t hungry…just to save up for my surgery,” said Pradip.

Medical crowdfunding on Give

To help the family, who have already sold their land for ₹6 lakh to pay expenses – ₹5 lakh of which is already spent – Jaslok Hospital approached our medical crowdfunding team at Give to help raise funds for Pradip’s bone marrow transplant, which we readily took up.

Give COO Sumit Tayal said: “At Give all our work is directed towards alleviating poverty. So it is really heartening to hear stories of young people born to destitute families having aspirations of educating themselves to the highest degree possible to secure well paid jobs and a better future. So when we heard about the plight of 19-year-old Pradip Patil, with exactly this humbling ambition it broke our hearts. We are confident donors will come forward to support the Patils.”

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