Asata gets second chance at life
Only God knows how grateful and thankful we are for this opportunity
When Luisa Cavalevu was given the news that her daughter needed a heart operation, her mind ran wild thinking of solutions.
At one point, she thought she was going to lose her only child, Asata Dauvere, who was only seven years old. They live in Levuka where her husband comes from. They both work for the fish canning industry but even with their wages combined, they could not afford the kind of surgery needed for their little one.
They also could not fathom why their daughter was sick.
“Every time I looked at my daughter, I became worried,” she said. But a trip to Suva for a review of Asata’s condition became what they described as a miracle.
The Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital in Suva listed Asata as one of the nine children to receive a free surgery at its hospital. A 20-member team of surgeons, doctors and specialists from India conducted a life-saving open-heart surgery on Asata.
“Today my daughter has been given another chance at life,” she said. “We did not have to pay for anything here. The staff are so nice. “We are supposed to leave today but we are told to hang around again. That is just amazing.
“Only God knows how grateful and thankful we are for this opportunity.”
Hospital director, Dr Krupali Tappoo, said they were privileged to host the team from the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Mumbai, India.
She added that through the outreach visits to rural and maritime regions, they found that Fiji was presenting higher than average cases of Congenital Heart Disease. “This is indeed a worrying fact that needs to be addressed on various levels by all stakeholders,” she said.
“We are committed to saving the lives of the children of Fiji and the Pacific and we invite everyone to join us in ensuring that our future generations are given the ‘Gift of Life’ that they deserve.”