Kottayam: A 22-year-old student in Kerala died April 25, eight months after she underwent a multi-organ transplant.
Ambili Fathima died at 10 am on Monday at Caritas Hospital in Kottayam where she was admitted three days ago due to infection in blood and internal organs.
Ambili, a final year student of Masters in Commerce, was moved to the transplant ICU after her condition deteriorated.
When she was 2, Ambily was diagnosed with Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, a rare condition that causes stiffening of arteries, leading to difficulty in supply of blood to the lungs. Because of a hole in her heart, pure blood was getting mixed with impure blood, causing the lungs to stall.
The student of Kottayam’s Church Mission Society (CMS) College became an overnight sensation after she underwent an 11-hour-long rare transplantation surgery.
She underwent the surgery at Apollo Hospital in Chennai on August 13, 2015. Both her lungs and heart were transplanted during the procedure.
Although the transplant was said to be successful, she had undergone another surgery a month later. She was shifted back to her hometown, Kottayam, only a month ago.
Ambily was the daughter of Baheer Hassan and Shyla of Puthuparambil House at Kanjirappally.
Those who extended help to her included cine actor Manju Warrier and the Mahathma Gandhi University under which CMS College functions.
CMS College Principal Roy Sam Daniel, who was also her teacher, told ‘Express’ that Ambili never let her illness come in way of her studies.
“A fully positive spirited girl, Ambili was one of our best students. She never showed her illness to anyone, but we took extra care for her. We shifted her classes to downstairs as it was difficult for her to climb,” he added.
The Appolo hospital had told her parents the surgery would cost at least 4 million rupees. They then started looking for donors. In spite of their low financial status, Ambily did not give up. One day, she went to meet a friend at a local newspaper.
When she narrated her situation, her friend suggested crowd-funding and published her story immediately. “We didn’t know about its potential until then,” says her father. The news went viral. Soon, hundreds of people all over the world started donating and they received more than 6.5 million rupees for her surgery.
In an interview after her surgery, Ambily had said she wanted to help people suffering like her. “There are a lot of young people with this condition and they are not aware of the treatment available. I want to be of mental support and guide them and help them financially if I can,” she told The New Indian Express.
She also wanted to form a trust for charitable activities.
“When I take the pledge ‘All Indians are my brothers and sisters’, I know I have to help them like family. People spend a lot for their luxury, not for their needs. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want another Ambily Fathima struggling like me,” she added.