KT impact: Indian community in UAE helps airlift 66-year-old visitor

Dubai - Khanna had not taken travel or medical insurance due to which his hospital bills shot up to over Dh100,000 in just a week's time.

Indian community in the UAE came to the rescue of 66-year-old visitor Surendra Nath Khanna, who came to the UAE to meet his son but fell critically ill on March 15. Khanna had not taken travel or medical insurance due to which his hospital bills shot up to over Dh100,000 in just a week's time.
Also read: Indian visitor's hospital bill in Dubai crosses Dh100,000
The story of Khanna's plight was first reported by Khaleej Times on Saturday (March 23) while he was still on a ventilator, battling a severe lung infection that had spread to other organs of his body leading to a multi-organ failure. Khanna also developed gangrene in his left hand which had to be amputated.
Anubhav Khanna, the patient's son who moved to Dubai eleven months ago, said he and his brother have lost their life savings trying to foot the bill of their father's medication, ICU charges etc. Anubhav had to shell out over Dh20,000 every day and his bills exceeded Dh100,000.
To add to the woes of the family, Anubhav borrowed money from family, friends and booked an air ambulance for Dh42,000 from India. However, the portable ventilator couldn't match the oxygen required by his father and the air ambulance had to return and refused to refund the amount.
However, with the support of the members of the Indian consulate that mobilised the community to help the Khannas, several businessmen came forward and help them with the funds. Also, a number of Khaleej Times readers emailed asking for the contact details of the Khannas so as to help them with their contributions.
On Tuesday (March 26) evening, with the assistance of the consulate and community support, Anubhav managed to arrange for a better-equipped charter plane ambulance for his ailing father and flew out with his mother to New Delhi, where arrangements for his father's treatment were made.
Also, the NMC Hospital at the Dubai Investment Park, where Surendra Nath Khanna was admitted, stopped the billing cycle for a couple of days and extended the period of payment after reading about their plight in Khaleej Times.
"I have never seen a private hospital being generous to the extent of stopping the billing cycle after those initial few days," a grateful Anubhav told Khaleej Times before he boarded the plane.
The acting consul-general and head of chancery Neeraj Agrawal expressed his deep gratitude to NMC Hospital management who waived a large part of the medical bill on humanitarian grounds. Agrawal also thanked senior Indian community members like Vasu Shroff, Siddhartha Balachandran, Dr Ram Buxani, Dinesh Kothari and others who came forward to support the family during their testing times.
Agrawal said that the collective efforts of patient family, community, medical team and the consulate have helped in airlifting the patient to India and that he hoped that the patient would fully recover in days to come.
Reiterating the importance of travel insurance, Agarwal said all Indians traveling to the UAE must avail of travel insurance to cover any such sudden medical costs.
saman@khaleejtimes.com
 

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