Family takes to crowdfunding for Ghatkopar fire victim’s bill

The family of 18-year-old medical aspirant, who was injured in the fire that broke out in a Ghatkopar commercial complex on December 17, has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for her treatment

Mumbai: The family of 18-year-old medical aspirant, who was injured in the fire that broke out in a Ghatkopar commercial complex on December 17, has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for her treatment.

Family takes to crowdfunding for Ghatkopar fire victim’s bill

Taniya Kamble was attending NEET classes on the fourth floor of the building when the incident happened around 2 pm. The girl had sustained 20% burns, largely on her face and hands. She has already undergone a surgery at the National Burns Centre (NBC) in Airoli, where she was moved from Rajawadi Hospital the next day of the incident.

“We are paying almost ₹40,000 per day in the hospital other than the expenses on the medicines. In the past ten days, we have already spent around ₹4 lakh,” her father Sanjay Kamble said. The estimated cost of the treatment that the hospital has given to the family is upwards of ₹10 lakh.

Sanjay, who is a marketing professional, has already withdrawn money from a fixed deposit and borrowed from everyone he could to help with the hospital bills. The family has also applied to the chief minister’s relief fund a couple of days ago, but is awaiting their application to be processed. It was after the family had used up all available resources that they decided to float a crowdfunding campaign on ImpactGuru, a fundraising platform.

“After the incident, Taniya was taken to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar. The staff there told us on the very same day that the facilities in the hospital were not sufficient and that we should shift her to a better-equipped facility,” Sanjay said. He said that the family looked for other government hospitals, but even they did not have a burns ward or ventilators available. That is when the family decided to take Taniya to NBC.

Meanwhile, after being disoriented for several days, Taniya spoke to her family for the first time on Tuesday. “She started talking about her last memories, which revolved around the incident and her escape. We asked her to not think about it,” said Sanjay. He said that his daughter is looking at a long hospital stay and recovery that might even necessitate her to drop out of studies for this year.

Sanjay said that his only daughter and the second among his three kids, has harboured the dream of becoming a doctor since she was ten years old. In order to accomplish her dream, she busied herself with studies. Taniya has always been among the toppers of her class, he said.

He said that he feels upset about the fact that the classes on whose premises Taniya met with such a severe mishap have shown no concern towards her. “Her classmate Eidish Sahetya passed away, but there was not even a call from the teachers. We got in touch with them to ask if they could help with the funds and all they could say was they would pitch in for the ambulance fee,” Sanjay added.