SECL to give Rs 16 crore for treatment of employee’s 2 year old daughter

New Delhi: South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL), will give Rs 16 crore for the treatment of a 2-year-old daughter of its coal miner suffering from a rare disease called 'Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). "This heart touching move of CIL assumes significance at a time when its coal miners are toiling day and night to ensure sufficient coal supply to the nation to produce power with the economy picking up and there is a huge fall in coal imports because of about three-fold hike in coal prices in the international market", SECL said in an official statement issued Thursday.

Srishti Rani, daughter of Satish Kumar Ravi, an overman working in the Dipka Coal area of SECL, is suffering from SMA, a genetic disorder in which a person can't control the movement of muscles due to loss of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain stem.

Srishti needs to be jabbed with an injection named 'Zolgensma,' which costs Rs 16 crores. The kid is presently put on a portable ventilator at her residence at Dipka coal area of SECL in Chhattisgarh after getting the last treatment from AIIMS, Delhi.

"It was not possible for an employee like Satish to buy an injection at such a high price. Now, CIL management has taken a welcome decision to bear the cost of injection, which has to be imported. With this generous gesture, CIL has also set an exemplary example for other PSUs and Organisations thinking human resources along with their families are their real wealth and saving their lives at any cost is the first and foremost job," a senior SECL official said.

Srishti was born on November 22, 2019. Within six months after her birth, she started falling sick. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, her parents could not move outside for her better treatment and she could only get local treatment till the time they moved to Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore in December 2020, where she was diagnosed with SMA.

On December 30, 2020, while returning from Vellore to Ravi's workplace in the Korba district of Chhattisgarh, her health deteriorated and she was admitted at SECL empanelled Apollo Hospital, Bilaspur got treated for a long time there. Later, she also got treatment at AIIMS, Delhi and the kid is presently put on a portable ventilator at her residence at Dipka coal area of SECL in Chhattisgarh.

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