Post by bingbong on Dec 28, 2008 12:00:57 GMT 12
Family $50,000 in debt after double tragedy
www.stuff.co.nz//4804753a11.html
By TAMMY BUCKLEY - Sunday News | Sunday, 28 December 2008
A CHRISTMAS double-tragedy has robbed a close-knit family of two loved ones and plunged them into tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Instead of celebrating this festive season, a south Auckland dad has had to bury his big brother and his only son in just over two weeks a tragedy that's left a $50,000 new year's debt his family will struggle to repay.
On Christmas Day when Suresh Narayan hoped to be opening gifts with his young family his family was instead united in prayer for four-year-old Sharvesh having just finished 13 days of prayer for Suresh's big brother Shayam.
It's customary for followers of the Hindu faith to pray for 13 days following a death.
"December used to be our good month. The 15th of December is our wedding anniversary and (Christmas Eve) is my birthday," the heartbroken dad told Sunday News.
On November 24 Suresh an engineer from Manurewa got a heartbreaking call from his younger brother telling him their brother Shayam had died from a heart attack in their homeland of Fiji.
With no close family in Suva to help his brother's grieving widow and two children, Suresh caught the first available flight, on November 25, to help arrange the funeral.
"The best thing was for me to go there. It's way different to how it's done here. Here you just call the funeral director and they do the rest but there you've got to do everything yourself," he said.
Suresh's wife, Vijay, and their two children 10-year-old daughter Shayala and son Sharvesh would fly over two days later.
But the night the 34-year-old left for Suva his son fell ill with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Vijay took her son to see a doctor who treated the four-year-old for a viral tummy bug and cleared him to fly.
But Sharvesh was still nauseous when he arrived in Fiji and throughout his uncle's funeral the following day, so Vijay took him to a local doctor.
He told the family to keep giving the boy the medication he was prescribed in New Zealand.
"When they came back from the doctors when I sat down with him I was not comfortable," Suresh said.
"(For) a child who is really active, never been sick, always running around just lying there and just talking, he didn't want to do anything (I was concerned). I said to my wife `we better take him to Suva Hospital'."
Despite consultations with doctors at Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suresh was uneasy with their diagnosis of dehydration. Suresh decided to fly his only son home for the best treatment possible but when their flight stopped in Nadi he decided to get another doctor's opinion.
By then Sharvesh was having trouble even responding to his dad.
"We went to the GP and he said `this boy is very sick you guys have got to take him to Lautoka Hospital'."
Doctors began treating him for Hepatitis B but admitted they did not know what was causing the mystery illness.
Doctors advised Suresh to seek urgent treatment in New Zealand.
With no travel insurance, Suresh called his bosses at Chenery Contracting in Otahuhu and they helped find an air ambulance to bring Sharvesh home.
"(My boss) called and said this is how much it's going to cost and I said `yup just pay, if I have to take out a loan I will'."
So just a week after learning his 39-year-old brother had died, Suresh was seeing off his own son in an emergency air ambulance flight.
Unconscious with his liver failing, Sharvesh was flown to Auckland with his mum and two doctors on December 2.
Specialists at Auckland's Starship Hospital could not find the cause of Sharvesh's liver failure and started planning a liver transplant.
"I was really relieved when I saw the doctors from New Zealand working on him. That gave me more confidence (he would pull through)," Suresh said.
But what little hope the heartbroken family had faded when doctors revealed the boy's brain had been damaged by swelling.
"In Lautoka Hospital he closed his eyes and he never opened his eyes after that. We were at his bedside, we watched the monitor dropping and he left us on December 9," Suresh said.
"That was hardest thing, holding our child's hand and watching the monitor when his breath drops and his heart stops. It's difficult."
Sharvesh died eight days after the emergency flight. His family buried him at Manukau Memorial Gardens on December 13 without knowing what caused his death.
"Within five days a kid is sick like that, his liver function gone down, his heart is not strong, his kidneys not working.What happened?" asks Suresh.
"It's just a mystery now."
Christmas was sombre for the family but the new year is not looking any brighter with a $50,000 air ambulance debt. Suresh said not having travel insurance was a mistake but they did not think about it at the time. He said he and his wife Vijay who is a caregiver would find a way to pay back the debt but first they needed to grieve.
"I'm just trying to put my head together. It's as if everything has stopped for me. I don't know what to do now," he said.
To help the family, Suresh's bosses at Chenery Contracting formed a trust and 8000 has been donated. Suresh's boss, Chenery Contracting CEO Geoff Schunselaar, said Suresh had been a "loyal employee" for six to seven years and they did not hesitate to help him.
"If I was in the same situation I'd hope someone would do the same."
Anyone wanting to help can do so by depositing money in the following account Chenery Contracting Ltd in Trust for Sharvesh Narayan, account number: BNZ 02-0214-0135517-000
www.stuff.co.nz//4804753a11.html
By TAMMY BUCKLEY - Sunday News | Sunday, 28 December 2008
A CHRISTMAS double-tragedy has robbed a close-knit family of two loved ones and plunged them into tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
Instead of celebrating this festive season, a south Auckland dad has had to bury his big brother and his only son in just over two weeks a tragedy that's left a $50,000 new year's debt his family will struggle to repay.
On Christmas Day when Suresh Narayan hoped to be opening gifts with his young family his family was instead united in prayer for four-year-old Sharvesh having just finished 13 days of prayer for Suresh's big brother Shayam.
It's customary for followers of the Hindu faith to pray for 13 days following a death.
"December used to be our good month. The 15th of December is our wedding anniversary and (Christmas Eve) is my birthday," the heartbroken dad told Sunday News.
On November 24 Suresh an engineer from Manurewa got a heartbreaking call from his younger brother telling him their brother Shayam had died from a heart attack in their homeland of Fiji.
With no close family in Suva to help his brother's grieving widow and two children, Suresh caught the first available flight, on November 25, to help arrange the funeral.
"The best thing was for me to go there. It's way different to how it's done here. Here you just call the funeral director and they do the rest but there you've got to do everything yourself," he said.
Suresh's wife, Vijay, and their two children 10-year-old daughter Shayala and son Sharvesh would fly over two days later.
But the night the 34-year-old left for Suva his son fell ill with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Vijay took her son to see a doctor who treated the four-year-old for a viral tummy bug and cleared him to fly.
But Sharvesh was still nauseous when he arrived in Fiji and throughout his uncle's funeral the following day, so Vijay took him to a local doctor.
He told the family to keep giving the boy the medication he was prescribed in New Zealand.
"When they came back from the doctors when I sat down with him I was not comfortable," Suresh said.
"(For) a child who is really active, never been sick, always running around just lying there and just talking, he didn't want to do anything (I was concerned). I said to my wife `we better take him to Suva Hospital'."
Despite consultations with doctors at Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suresh was uneasy with their diagnosis of dehydration. Suresh decided to fly his only son home for the best treatment possible but when their flight stopped in Nadi he decided to get another doctor's opinion.
By then Sharvesh was having trouble even responding to his dad.
"We went to the GP and he said `this boy is very sick you guys have got to take him to Lautoka Hospital'."
Doctors began treating him for Hepatitis B but admitted they did not know what was causing the mystery illness.
Doctors advised Suresh to seek urgent treatment in New Zealand.
With no travel insurance, Suresh called his bosses at Chenery Contracting in Otahuhu and they helped find an air ambulance to bring Sharvesh home.
"(My boss) called and said this is how much it's going to cost and I said `yup just pay, if I have to take out a loan I will'."
So just a week after learning his 39-year-old brother had died, Suresh was seeing off his own son in an emergency air ambulance flight.
Unconscious with his liver failing, Sharvesh was flown to Auckland with his mum and two doctors on December 2.
Specialists at Auckland's Starship Hospital could not find the cause of Sharvesh's liver failure and started planning a liver transplant.
"I was really relieved when I saw the doctors from New Zealand working on him. That gave me more confidence (he would pull through)," Suresh said.
But what little hope the heartbroken family had faded when doctors revealed the boy's brain had been damaged by swelling.
"In Lautoka Hospital he closed his eyes and he never opened his eyes after that. We were at his bedside, we watched the monitor dropping and he left us on December 9," Suresh said.
"That was hardest thing, holding our child's hand and watching the monitor when his breath drops and his heart stops. It's difficult."
Sharvesh died eight days after the emergency flight. His family buried him at Manukau Memorial Gardens on December 13 without knowing what caused his death.
"Within five days a kid is sick like that, his liver function gone down, his heart is not strong, his kidneys not working.What happened?" asks Suresh.
"It's just a mystery now."
Christmas was sombre for the family but the new year is not looking any brighter with a $50,000 air ambulance debt. Suresh said not having travel insurance was a mistake but they did not think about it at the time. He said he and his wife Vijay who is a caregiver would find a way to pay back the debt but first they needed to grieve.
"I'm just trying to put my head together. It's as if everything has stopped for me. I don't know what to do now," he said.
To help the family, Suresh's bosses at Chenery Contracting formed a trust and 8000 has been donated. Suresh's boss, Chenery Contracting CEO Geoff Schunselaar, said Suresh had been a "loyal employee" for six to seven years and they did not hesitate to help him.
"If I was in the same situation I'd hope someone would do the same."
Anyone wanting to help can do so by depositing money in the following account Chenery Contracting Ltd in Trust for Sharvesh Narayan, account number: BNZ 02-0214-0135517-000
