HC seeks govts' response on couple's plea for son's treatment

The Centre and state government were today directed by the Delhi High Court to respond by tomorrow to a plea of a couple seeking court's intervention to provide free treatment to their eight-year-old son suffering from thalassemia.
Issuing notice to the Ministry of Health of Centre and Delhi Government, AIIMS, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Indian Red Cross Society, a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Manmohan asked them to reply by tomorrow on the plea of the child's parents, residents of Pitampura here.
Writing to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, the couple in their letter, which was converted by the court into a PIL, said their son has been suffering from thalassemia since the tender age of six months and his blood transfusion takes place once in a fortnight.

They were told by the doctors that bone marrow transplant is the only permanent cure for such disease and the treatment is very expensive which is beyond their financial capacity, the letter said.
"I am working with a private limited company and my monthly emoluments do not allow me to make payments towards the procurement of blood on a regular basis and also to take care of the well being of my family..," the boy's father said.
"The government does not have any specific policy to provide for the blood transfusion requirement to patients of thalassemia, therefore, such children are the sole responsibility of the parents and many children die in the process of their parents' inability to arrange blood or insufficiency of funds to buy the requisite quantity of blood every fortnight," the couple said, seeking the court to get their son's bone marrow operation done free of cost.

They also said that the child, whose blood group is O-, is undergoing treatment at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital at present and as blood group is rare, they are facing difficulty in getting the blood every fortnight.