GUWAHATI, Sept 19 - To mark the 70th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the State health department is facilitating free treatment to 70 children, in need of either cardiac surgery or bone marrow transplant.
At a function today, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said of these children, 64 have congenital heart disease. The other six require bone marrow transplant. �Twenty children would be taken to Bangaluru, 15 to Kolkata and 35 would undergo the surgery in Guwahati,� he said.
Air tickets were handed over to the children who will fly to Bengaluru and Kolkata for the treatment. �All cost of travel and surgeries will be borne by the State health department,� Sarma said.
The minister announced that on October 10 there will be a screening camp at GMCH for children below 12 years whose families cannot afford the critical surgeries.
�Those who require kidney transplant, liver transplant or bone marrow transplant... we would be providing free treatment, whether in Guwahati or outside the State. The organs will have to be donated by family members. It will be a regular programme. Such screening camps will be held every month,� the minister added.
