Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

A Long­denville, Ch­agua­nas man is plead­ing for as­sis­tance to make up the re­main­der of the mon­ey he needs for a coro­nary artery by­pass graft at the South­ern Med­ical Spe­cial­ist Hos­pi­tal on May 21.

“I need to live, so I need to do this surgery. Be­cause I have plen­ty of things to live for,” Ki­ran Har­ric­hand said sad­ly.

Har­ric­hand, 48, has ap­prox­i­mate­ly $122,000 for the surgery but needs $42,000 more, as the to­tal cost of the life-sav­ing surgery is $164,500.

South­ern Med­ical gave Har­ric­hand three months from the 21st to pay off the re­main­der.

“They say they will go through with the surgery still, but I have three months to pay it off,” he said.

But the fa­ther of one is wor­ried that he will not have the strength to raise the re­main­der of the mon­ey.

In a Zoom in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Har­ric­hand said he start­ed ex­hibit­ing symp­toms in 2018, when he no­ticed that he no longer had the strength to do dai­ly tasks or play sport (crick­et).

But it was a sharp pain in his arm that pushed him to vis­it the hos­pi­tal, where he learnt that he need­ed a stent be­cause he had ex­pe­ri­enced a heart at­tack.

Ac­cord­ing to Web­MD, a stent is a tiny wire mesh tube that is placed in a coro­nary artery to in­crease blood flow to the heart.

He ex­plained that he was put on a wait­ing list, but his date kept be­ing pushed back un­til the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic start­ed, and then-min­is­ter of health, Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, post­poned all elec­tive surg­eries at hos­pi­tals.

It was rein­tro­duced on a phased ba­sis in May 2020, but Har­ric­hand was not called.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he reap­plied af­ter the pan­dem­ic but was put on an­oth­er list, so he opt­ed to go pri­vate­ly, and that was where he learnt that he need­ed surgery af­ter his sit­u­a­tion wors­ened.

“I would not like my worst en­e­my to get this. You ever meet a tiger or any­thing, and it holds you and grabs you and rips you? That is how the pain does feel in your chest,” he shared.

Har­ric­hand said the surgery is com­ing at a time when his on­ly son is writ­ing his ex­am­i­na­tions, and he be­lieves if he had got­ten the stent back in 2018, he would have been okay to­day.

“I will tell peo­ple stop hav­ing bad eat­ing habits and take care of your­self and live a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

Any­one will­ing to as­sist Har­ric­hand can call 492-1334.