HYDERABAD: With the army withdrawing financial support for his terminally-ill seven-year-old son Mihir , battling with a rare congenital genetic disorder at a corporate hospital for the last ten months, city-based Kargil war veteran Manoj Kumar Sikdar has decided to go for crowd-funding to meet the medical expenses.

The distraught father ran from pillar to post but could not renew the health insurance cover for his son under the Ex-Servicemen Central Health Scheme (ECHS), since it expired after 120 days on April 6.

Since April 6, the ex-serviceman could raise Rs 70,000 out of the Rs 90,000 charged by KIMS Hospital for 20-day treatment. “I have no other option but to go for crowd-funding to meet the medical expenses of my son. We cannot leave him just like that,” said Manoj, adding that he needs Rs 8,500 per day to meet the medical expenses for his son.

In order to raise funds, the hapless father created a Facebook page and also uploaded a 10-minute video on Youtube titled ‘Help Mihir’, a documentary showcasing a moving portrayal of his son’s every day battle with Neurofibromatosis type-1, a rare congenital disease.

Now on a ventilator, and hit by paralysis on one side, Mihir is simultaneously battling against several other health complications like Moyamoya syndrome (constricted blood vessels in brain), Kyphoscoliosis (spine disorder), bleeding in brain and urinary tract infection. He has already lost his voice after a tracheotomy tube inserted into his trachea to make him breathe but that made him speechless now.

Ironically, KIMS Hospital has doubled the charges for Mihir’s treatment per day from Rs 4,647 to Rs 8,500, since the withdrawal of the insurance scheme. “We hope people will respond as all opportunities have dried up for us,” said Geeta Sikdar, mother of Mihir.

