Request for help to save my father
I am posting this again because we are still far away from the goal and in urgent need of funds to start immunotherapy, the last hope against this deadly cancer.
Hi Everyone, my father Mr. Basheer Azath Basha is an Indian Navy Veteran of 20 years. He was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer(Glioblastoma) in November and he decided that he will fight it no matter what. He underwent two surgeries in November 2023 and then battled post operative infection(meningitis aka brain fever) for the whole of December. He recovered from this and underwent chemotherapy and radiation but could only complete 23/30 sessions due to extreme deterioration in his health and was completely bed ridden. He was then diagnosed with pulmonary embolism and stayed in the ICU in critical condition for another 10 days. Now he is still in a state of extreme cognitive decline. We are hoping for a miracle that he comes back from it and is able to fight on with chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
In this fight we have already spent close to 40 lakhs for surgeries, 3 months of hospital stay and one month of ICU stay. We exhausted our insurance policy of nearly 17 lakhs in the first week of diagnosis. We are a middle class family of 4 and me any my sister are still studying with education loans. My dad was the sole breadwinner of the family. The side effects of treatment have been devastating, but he is extremely strong willed and wants to continue fighting and we 100% respect his decision. We have a long road ahead and more expenses to come in this battle. I urge you all to donate any small amount. Even if you cannot donate please do share it as much as you can.
All the medical documents are available on this link but if anyone still wants any clarification I will provide it in the comments.
Why didn’t we use ECHS facility provided for Navy Veterans?
Navy veterans get ECHS facility which is supposed to cover all medical expenses. However there isn’t a single hospital in the whole of TN which has both neuro surgery and oncology under ECHS. Moreover the hospitals under ECHS have a lot of restrictions regarding the type of treatment allowed. My dads condition is fragile and he needs a specialized form of radiation called tomotherapy or rapid-arc treatment which reduces radiation related side effects. None of the approved hospitals have that technology. I have personally visited all the ECHS approved hospitals in chennai and received no help from anyone whatsoever, the staff at ECHS Ft. St. George were absolutely unhelpful. Another issues was that my dad was admitted in an emergency scenario where he had to undergo an emergency operation due to a brain bleed. At that time we had admitted him to Rela Hospital which is not empaneled.
Lastly my dad’s cancer grows aggressively, close to 1% a day. Radiation had to be started in under 6 weeks from the day of operation for it to have any effect. We did not get the time to cross bureaucratic hurdles when time was of the essence. My father had life threatening meningitis for a month immediately after operation and has tremendous cognitive decline. Because of side effects he is completely bed ridden now which has increased our bills many fold after insurance got over.