: A ten-day break from his work in Dubai six years ago changed Illyas’s life forever. The then 23-year-old met with an accident in his hometown in Palakkad that left him a paraplegic. A lorry rammed his motorcycle crushing his spinal cord, left hand and ribs. His family had to shift to Kochi, where he has been admitted to a hospital for the last two years.
Having already spent over Rs. 25 lakh on treatment, his wife Shameera took him to the mass contact programme on Thursday hoping for help from the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Illyas was among the many seriously ill who turned up at the venue of the mass contact programme held at the district collectorate, despite the explicit directive that they need not come to the venue in ambulances and wheelchairs.
Minister K. Babu offered them assistance after meeting them with a team of health officials, including district medical officer and assistant district medical officer.
For Mary Varghese from Paingottoor panchayat finding money for the treatment of his husband fighting cancer of multiple organs and repaying the bank loan taken for their son’s education was proving to be an impossible task.
Having already repaid Rs. 1.28 lakh of a loan of Rs. 1.18 lakh, there still remains a further Rs. 53,000 as penal interest.
Among the people who came to the programme was Aliyar from Kothamangalam, who came with his eight-year-old son Mohammed Aslam born with cerebral palsy. The autorickshaw driver spent all his savings on his son’s treatment.
