E-Paper
A father?s cry for mercy killing
SURESH BAJPAI lost his last penny in the hope that he will not lose his ailing son. Now, with no help or means in sight, the crestfallen father has sought permission from President APJ Abdul Kalam for mercy killing of his own son he wanted to save at all costs.
SURESH BAJPAI lost his last penny in the hope that he will not lose his ailing son. Now, with no help or means in sight, the crestfallen father has sought permission from President APJ Abdul Kalam for mercy killing of his own son he wanted to save at all costs.
“I am broke... I cannot afford the high cost of medical treatment and there is no one to help us. This is the only way,” is all he says, with tears rolling down his weather-beaten face.
Even as the father keeps trying to generate money to help his son, no one in the city of several industrial houses and top politicians, has come forward with a helping hand.
His son Praveen is down with a malady that entails Rs 20 lakh for treatment.
Just 20 years old, Praveen developed excess flesh on his face and this phenomenon chokes his respiratory tract. He cannot breath and his efforts result in excruciating pain.
For the past one year, Praveen has been confined to bed and all he wants is death.
“Shoot me or give a shot of poison... I am fed of this kind of life,” he keeps pleading to his father.
A resident of 74/53, Ranjeetpurwa, Dhankutti, Bajpai sold off all his belongings to meet the expenses on his son’s treatment.
His wife Shyama sold the house she had inherited from her father and a truck as well.
Praveen was admitted to Loknayak Jaiprakash hospital, New Delhi.
The doctors found plastic surgery as the only remedy that entailed an expenditure of Rs 15 to 20 lakh. This huge amount of money was out of bounds of Bajpai.
Some of his friends took him to minister of state for home Shri Prakash Jaiswal and then to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Congress chief was kind enough to write a letter to the PMO, asking it to help Bajpai.
Thereafter, Suresh Bajpai went to Delhi several times but the treatment could not begin nor did the PMO instruct the hospital in this regard.
A disappointed Bajpai and his wife then went to Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted a letter to the President, seeking his consent for mercy killing of their son.
