Mumbai: Father struggles to get US emergency visa for 6-year-old’s surgery | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Mumbai: Father struggles to get US emergency visa for 6-year-old’s surgery

ByRupsa Chakraborty, Mumbai
Mar 17, 2021 12:57 AM IST

Six-year-old Priyanshu Meshram, a native of Madhya Pradesh (MP), needs an emergency visa to the United States of America (USA) to undergo surgery for rare congenital heart disease

Six-year-old Priyanshu Meshram, a native of Madhya Pradesh (MP), needs an emergency visa to the United States of America (USA) to undergo surgery for rare congenital heart disease. However, his 31-year-old father Sagar Meshram is struggling to get an appointment with the US Consulate in Mumbai for the emergency visa, considering the huge number of applications, due to stringent restrictions imposed by the US government in granting visa.

Priyanshu and Sagar Meshram.
Priyanshu and Sagar Meshram.

Priyanshu needs to be admitted to the Boston Children’s Hospital in the US on March 22 for pre-surgery diagnostics.

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A wall painter by profession, Meshram did not have the money to treat Priyanshu, who was diagnosed with a heart condition when he was four months old. When doctors in MP could not help to improve Priyanshu’s condition, the family shifted to Mumbai in 2018, to undergo treatment at Kokilaben Hospital. Later, Priyanshu was referred to Boston Children’s Hospital. The treatment would cost an estimately 2 crore. “I work as a wall painter and I did not have so much money. It took us almost over three years to arrange for the money through crowdsourcing,” said Meshram, who is currently residing in Pune.

Meshram said that he deposited 1.68 crore at the hospital in the US and that the surgery is scheduled for April 5. He now fears that if he fails to reach Boston by March 22, he may lose his son after six years of fighting. “The pandemic has become the biggest obstruction in saving my son,” he said. Documents available with HT show that the hospital has acknowledged it and also requested the US embassy in India to issue a visa to the child immediately for his surgery.

“Due to the pandemic, the embassy has kept very limited dates for appointment dates for emergency visa. So, even before we log into the website for the process, all the dates get filled up. I have also written to the US Consulate General, Mumbai, to expedite the process for my son, but it hasn’t been fruitful,” said Sagar.

In reply to an email sent to Sagar on March 12, the Consulate responded, “...(sic) The consulate cannot guarantee when it will be able to resume limited visa services or consider requests for expedited appointments.”

The US consulate in Mumbai did not respond to HT’s email.

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