Smile on the face of Saravanan, aged four, and Nandini, aged three,  shows that they are hale and hearty. Born with heart defects, the two were operated free of cost by the Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of SRM Medical College and Hospital and Health Sciences near Chennai.

The doctors have infused a fresh lease of life into the duo, whose parents were too poor to afford treatment. The children can now breathe easy, do their work and play their favourite sport.

A team of doctors headed by Dr V Harshavardhan and Dr Nanda Kishore Kapadia performed the surgeries. Both the children had been  suffering from ventrical septal defect, following which there was a mix- up of blood in the heart from birth.

Speaking to the press in the city yesterday, SRM University Pro- Chancellor P Ravi, Vice-Chancellor P Sathyanaraynan, Dr Harshavardhan and Dr Kapadia said that the defect was corrected through an open heart surgery.

The hospital has so far performed 12 such complicated surgeries and has plans to do eight more for free. Kapadia also said that there were plans to perform surgeries on poor people on a regular basis.  

Dr Kapadia and Dr Harshavardhan said SRM Hospital would soon be included in the list of hospitals in which government would provide assistance to children from poor families under the Idhayam Kappom Scheme.