Tribefunds

“Please help me to pay my father’s hospital expenses for him to return to his normal post-stroke routine of walking and writing”

Kaviru Samarawickrama

My name is Kaviru Samarawickrama. For personal reasons, I believe that my father would not like to be named. I am writing on his behalf because as much as I want him to get better by getting the appropriate quality treatments and comfort care, hospitals haven’t made it any easier to afford them.

My father has been suffering from high-blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol for 35 years. He turned 66 on 8th May 2022. He has always been a person who took his medication on time and under the thankful advice of Dr.Bulugahapitiya he survived for 35 years without much harm from Diabetes.

On 8th October 2022, my father started experiencing the symptoms of a stroke. We immediately wanted to call Dr. Bulugahapitiya for his advice but with his unavailability, the emergency hotline told us to take my father immediately to Asiri Central, which is said to have the best Emergency care for stroke patients. When we came to the hospital he was walking on his own, the only symptoms were feeling unbalanced and having incredibly slurred speech.

At the hospital we tried our best to consult the best doctor who specializes in stroke patients. Unfortunately the two most recommended doctors were unavailable on date. We finally admitted my father under Dr.Thurul Attygalle who also came by recommendation.

The doctors said that we were 12 hours late when we admitted him to the hospital; that the stroke symptoms had started developing during the previous night. As we impatiently waited for more information of MRI and CT scans, my father could only think of his mother, who died of stroke due to high-blood sugar when she was just 45 years old. We kept reminding my father that he will survive and get through this difficult time.

That same night his condition worsened and he was put under insulin and nasal feeding. His entire left side from face to legs were paralyzed. To this day he is still getting physiotherapy, speech therapy and on nasal feeding. We had to hire caretakers from CERTIS lanka to help feed him, move him to the washroom, help with physiotherapy as he is quite heavy on his left side due to his paralysis.

The doctors explained very little to us about his stroke, where the blood clot originated in his brain, and the progress of the treatments. We only had MRI and CT scans in our hand but no other test reports. With the good help of a friend Adnan Caasim, I managed to consult for a second opinion from Dr.Ammar Mohamad Jawfer (General Physician) and M.R.M Ziyard (Cardiologist), both of whom explained the scans and the situation very clearly. Only at that point I was calmer and clearly thinking and realized that Dr.Attygalle was doing a great job with my father’s treatments. What each doctor said was that even though we were 12 hours late to admit my father, we still had a golden window to push through the very worst situation that could occur. The MRI scan taken on 8th October shows that the clot had scattered in his right side of the brain whilst by the scan taken by the 10th October shows that the clot had formed and was much easier to dissolve by treatments. Although since the MRI can only show the damage done by the clot and not the damage itself, the doctors can only hope that the treatments are curing the damage in the brain.

My father’s current condition has only improved about 10% since he came in. He can’t walk, write, nor sit straight. My father is a left hander so it’s incredibly horrifying to him that he can’t do what he used to do; teaching IT. He sleeps at odd hours during daytime due to medication and struggles to sleep at night. He is still on nasal feeding and treatments and still wanting to try his best to move. He needs help, he needs motivation, he needs hope.

My father’s treatments need to still continue. We can’t discharge him yet to take home because then we’d need all the equipment such as wheelchairs, air mattress, walking frames, nasal feeding equipment etc, and most importantly a well-trained nurse/attendant/caretaker (who can make his feed according to the diet chart), daily physiotherapist, speech therapist and psychologist to monitor and work on his progress.

Needless to say the hospital takes good care of my father but the hospital expenses are sky high amounts per day. It costs Rs.22,000/- for a A/C room and apart from that are there more than Rs.30,000/- expenses daily including medical (nursing and doctor charges), radiology, investigation, linen, laboratory, pharmacy drugs costs, and the list goes on!

My father is 66+ and has no insurance. We stopped paying for everyone because insurance is not something we could afford monthly either. My father is retired and has no income. I am working but not earning enough to feed my family. My sister just finished her studies in Malaysia and got a job, but her salary will only come in late November. It also turns out that most Insurance companies don’t provide insurance to individuals past 65 years of age, which is very very unfortunate.

I have taken a loan from my bank for 1 million rupees but the current medical bills are too high for me to complete with just that amount and I am unsure of how to pay the bank back. We are now transferring him to Winlanka under the care of Prof.S.D.Jayarathna, a doctor that we trust and have consulted for many years. We are transferring because Winlanka has lesser hospital room charges than Asiri Central. I have already spent the loan of 1 million rupees to Asiri Central and unsure how to pay further fees when we admit him to Winlanka hospital.

I am desperately asking for a donation of 1.5 million rupees. If you can support in any way you can, that can help my father not worry about financials and only focus on his recovery. He can only focus on physiotherapy well if he is at ease. My father has done no wrong to others in his life and for him to suffer this fate is heartbreaking to see.

To contact me to help my father in other ways please call 077 8406 902.

Thank you and god bless you all.

Please help me make these expenses by donating what you can. My father’s medical bill are sky high and I am unsure of how to pay the loans back as I am not earning enough to cover them.

Asiri Central hospital expenses from 8th to 23rd October 2022

Equipmment				Amount Price (LKR)
Room/bed charges				322,667.84
Admission/inpatient charges				15,000
General Nursing care				95,333.29
Resident Medical charges				102,666.71
Laundry/Linen charges				16,000.00
Laboratory charges				46,650.00
Investigation charges				11,380.00
Ward procedures				59,850.00
Rehabilitation				48,400.00
Extra meals				1,900.00
Radiology/imaging				39,300.00
Ward consumables				111,913.58
Pharmacy drugs				157,194.90
CSSD charges				16,000.00
Government Tax				48,400.29
Consultant charges				126,760.00
Total Expenses at Asiri Central				1,219,416.61/=

Expenses at Winlanka hospital to date 25th Oct 2022 (per day charge x 5 days)

Equipmment				Amount Price (LKR)
Room charges				10,500.00
Resident Doctor charges				3,000.00
General Nursing fees				2500.00
Linen charges				1000.00
Total (per day charge x 7 days)				85,000.00

Expenses for discharge

Equipmment				Amount Price (LKR)
Walking frame adjustable (second hand)				19,990.00
Commode wheelchair with wheels (second hand)				45,500.00
Air mattress				19,990.00
Hand gripper muscle recovery				3,452.00
Male urinal				899.00
Nursing care from CERTIS (4000/- x 1 month)				120,000.00
Backrest pillow				5,775.00
Total Expenses for Discharge				215,606.00/=

*Please note that above amounts are for Asiri Central hospital expenses (from 8th to 23rd Oct 2022), Winlanka hospital charges for 5 days and future care expenses for discharge. Have not included here CERTIS nursing charges while being admitted at Asiri or Winlanka. If above expenses are covered, I think I can manage to cover any other expenses slowly.

My father is a MSc. graduate specialized in Software Engineering and Information Technology from University of Colombo. He is also a MBCS member of the British Computer Society. For more than 20 years, he is a proud IT professional. He worked as an IT manager in a BOI company named Solideal (an industrial tire manufacturing company which is now under the Jinasena management). He worked part-time as an IT lecturer in Royal Institute and Edulink for many years during his pre-retirement until he finally got a teaching position at CSA School of Arts and Sciences, post-retirement.

As the IT manager, he got many opportunities to travel to other countries for company projects, dealt in harsh weathers of office politics and came home to a beautiful family of a wife and two daughters. He is born a multitasker, who managed to work both full-time as a manager and part time as an IT lecturer and at the end of the day, bought his own beautiful midnight-blue Ford Fiesta car and built his own home for his family from foundation.

He loves math, science and IT. When we were small, that’s what he would love to teach. He often loves to do math quizzes to get his brain pumped! He also has a very artistic hand (the left hand that is now paralyzed due to the stroke), I remember how he would help me in my art projects back at school. I am able to excel at Adobe Photoshop, Chess, IT because he taught me how to. He loves to read sci-fi and mystery novels and got my sister addicted to those genres too!

He loves to learn by gathering more knowledge and expanding his expertise and that’s his best quality. Often he would take up different areas in IT and research so that he can be up-to-date when he teaches students, and most importantly so that he can be proud of himself that he is an updated IT professional.

I hope to raise Rs. 1.5 Million within one month so that I can cover the loans.

28th October 2022 - And we are off with our campaign, really looking forward to your support!

To contact me to help my father in other ways please call 077 8406 902.

Contact details for further inquiries

Name: Kaviru Samarawickrama
Phone Number: +94 (0) 77 840 6902
Email Address: justsamks@gmail.com

Give my father hope to help him walk and write (post-stroke)

Kaviru Samarawickrama