Help for Archana; Treatment update on 17th November 2013

Dear friends,

Archana has undergone her current Chemotherapy on November 8th and 9th and she is doing well. Two more sessions to go and Doctor (Oncologist) will advise the next course of action after her 6th cycle of Chemotherapy.

You can see the bills and doctor report below. I have not provided a title for each image. Please click on the image to see large view of the picture.

Once again, Archana's family members thank each one of you for generous financial support without which they could not have afforded this treatment.

Regards

R Venkat

Help for Archana's cancer treatment- An update on 16 Oct 13

Dear friends,

Although I haven't posted anything any update on this blog, I have been constantly in touch with Archana's family by email and phone/SMS. She had just completed her third session of Chemotherapy on 16th October 2013 and three more sessions are to be completed. Next session is scheduled for 4th Nov 2013.

I have now received the prescription, medical report and expense vouchers. I am publishing them here for your information.

With the help of generous donations from all of you, we have now collected money for the balance chemotherapy sessions and further treatment options are not known at this time. I would request you to pray for this young women for the sake of infant child of under three months. It is hard to believe that some one going through the cancer ordeals at the age of 26.

Archana's prescription (16 Oct 2013)

Medical report page 2

Medical report 16 Oct 2013

Expense vouchers( Clinic bill)

Misc expenses like transport, food etc

Pharmacy bill  

I will keep updating this page once I have further information. Since they are undergoing lots of pain and distress, I am not disturbing them often. He doesn't have PC at home and he has to go to a browsing centre for accessing emails. You are free to write to me at rmvenkat@yahoo.com for any clarification.

Once again, big thank you for your timely help and generous contribution. Archana's family members have conveyed their gratitude for this as they have no other means to fund this expensive treatment.

Regards,

R Venkat

Help for Archana; Update on 24 September 2013

Dear friends,

I have now received scanned copies of her medical reports and they are below for your information

I have the bills and copy of their bank statement. Since some of my friends have requested to remain anonymous, I am not posting them here. The donations received since my first appeal on 16th September is around 89K (till 23rd Sep 2013). They had spent about 74K on hospital charges and the injection. There is a big list of medicines on page 3 above and I have no details of cost for this.

If anyone needs specific confirmation about their own donation, please write to me at rmvenkat@yahoo.com

Once again, thank you for your support and looking forward help for the remaining chemotherapy sessions.

Regards,

R Venkat

Update on Archana's treatment

Dear friends,

Please read the first posting here

I have just now spoken to Sri Ramacharya, father of Archana. In fact I have briefly spoken to her as well. She was admitted for the second chemo cycle on 21st and tonight she is getting discharged. With the help of donations, they are able to manage this time easily. The cost is about 80,000 rupees.

I will scan and upload the medical report once I receive them from him. The third cycle has been scheduled for 13th October. The doctor has told that 6 cycles must be given within three months.

It is heartening to note that she is responding well to the treatment and doctor has confirmed this. Please include her in your prayers. When I asked about her son, she told that her grandmother is taking care of him (6 weeks old). She was repeated telling 'thank you' and it seems that her husband is only proficient in Telugu.

Look for this page for further updates during the week. Now we have to look forward donations for the next cycle on 13th October.

Please circulate among your contacts and help. Even a small donation is also useful. When I had first wrote my appeal, I wasn't sure how the donations are going to come quick enough for the treatment. But it had happened. Now we have some more distance to go.

Regards,

R Venkat

Please help Archana for her cancer treatment!

Archana Mangalagiri. This is the name of the girl lying on the bed. From the picture, it is obvious that she is in a hospital and someone is attending her. Archana looks young and in fact she has delivered a boy only few weeks back. His son (Satvik) is 2 month old and he is not with her. What is her problem?.

She has been diagnosed with breast Cancer (IDC) Grade -3 Her2neo Positive and the doctors (Oncologist) have advised her to take 6 Cycles of Chemotheraphy with Herceptin Injection. OMG! Being a young mother, she must be breast feeding her son but breast cancer at this age?

Archana's husband Varadaraja Gopalacharya is an archaka in a vaishnava temple in Aleri village of Nalgonda district in Andra pradesh. Her father Shesha bhattar Ramacharya is also a bhattar in a srinivasa perumal temple at Sangareddy in Medak district.

She has been advised to undergo 6 cycles of Chemotherapy and each sitting is costing about 85,000 rupees plus hospital stay expenses. She has been admitted on 20th September 2013 for her second cycle and she will be in hospital for about a week. Her medical report of her previous chemo treatment is below.

The report clearly says that she need to get admitted on 20th September. Thankfully due to donations received from my friends and contacts, she could get herself admitted for the second cycle.

I received an email from her father but the email was composed as if it was from Archana. That email did not even have a Subject line and could have been easily dumped in the Spam folder. However, it managed to land in my Inbox. I was very disturbed reading the words like, "My husband is pujari and money will not be arranged" and the finishing line was so powerful. It read

"Please do the needfull and save my life (I did not correct the spelling, purposely)"

Who am I, to save a life!! How desperate  they must be!

Since there are lot of fake emails seeking help, as a first step I had asked for their phone number and a letter from their treating doctor.

Ramacharya, Archana's father responded with a phone number (99633 05980) and he had sent the biopsy report. Here it is

The medical report of Woodlands hospital, Bharakatpura, Hydrabad came after that in the third email. On receiving their number, I had called them. One of my colleague told that his parents used live near that hospital and he confirmed that the hospital information is factual.

From my initial interaction, I felt that this is a genuine plea for help. Archakas in temples located in small towns and villages hardly get any remuneration, which won't even cover their day to day expenses. Cancer treatment is an expensive requirement and without donations it is not possible.

I spoke to my friends and put an appeal in my Facebook page and in my Tamil blog. Few responded asking further questions and the time was very short. We  need to raise 85K in less than 10 days and thankfully she has got around 70K to enable her to get admitted as per the doctor's advise. This is the second of the Six cycle.

Archana and her family members are very pleased to receive our support and he has sent a long SMS in telugu thanking everyone for the timely assistance. He says that he has approached organisations like Rotary club, Lions Club but so far there is no sign of assistance.

Few of my contacts have advised to approach cancer hospitals run by trusts and governments. They live 60Km from Hydrabad and if anyone of you aware of such facility, please inform me. So far, we are unable to find any useful information on the free treatment. Time is running out and she may need another cycle in less than four weeks.

I would request your financial help. If you can transfer donations directly to her account, here are the details. The account is in her mother's name.

Account name :S.B.Revathi 

Bank:Andhra Bank 

Branch: Sangareddy Branch Medak District Andhra Pradesh

A/c No. 102910100027475

IFSC code ANDB0001029

Branch code 1029

MICR code 500011133

If you are living outside India and could not transfer funds directly, I can assist. Send an email to rmvenkat@yahoo.com and in the subject line put a note as "Help for archana".

Thanks for your patient reading.

R Venkat