Free love
Dr Merchant is the cheerleader for Chintu, Harsha and 60-odd children at the Nanavati Hospital’s blood bank. He’s 55 years old, maybe 60 – it doesn’t matter. He is not just consultant paediatrician at Nanavati Hospital, he is the only hope for about 60 children in the age group of 6 months to 26 years at any given time, afflicted by the life-threatening blood disorder, thalessemia. Even though he tells us that the management here is looking after them free, on humanitarian grounds, we know that each day five children are administered transfusions in a ward in the blood bank – all for free, at Dr Merchant’s initiative.
Consider this: two transfusions a month (Rs 10,000) plus investigations and chillation (excreting of extra iron) costing another Rs 10,000. All amounting to almost Rs 2 lakh per year, for the rest of the patient’s life.
Dr Merchant will not talk about himself. He says, “Sister Grace looks after them while transfusion is being done. The management of Nanavati Hospital is so supportive, and helping them makes you feel we also contribute to this cause.”
It’s tough to get him to talk about how he manages to reach out to thousands, without charging them a penny. He says, “We were simply committed to institutes. When you work with committed people, they become your role model and you try to walk in their footsteps. The reason I’ve been able to see farther is because I’ve been able to sit on the shoulders of giant personalities, and get a better view.”
He provides an insight into the enormity of this disorder. “Thalassemia is a devastating disease, the knowledge of the disease has still not percolated down into the communities that are affected by it. We don’t charge them because we feel they can’t bear the cost. I come in as a catalyst and it’s team work.” So how is he able to address a disorder of this magnitude? “I have been able to do it because I come across people who have been charitable and feel they ought to do something. 55 to 60 children need to be looked after. We aren’t yet there. I’m sure we’ll get there.”
And how does he garner that kind of money? “I am a professional beggar,” he shrugs. “To everybody, who I meet wearing an expensive watch, I say – ‘strip it off and sell it’; to all my rich patients who spend lavishly on their children and wives’ birthday parties, I say take out a small amount and give it. It is very difficult for an individual, it needs organisation, awareness.”