Arnav Gupta

On February 10, 2021, MOHAN Foundation’s “Anudaan- Making Transplants Affordable” team received a mail from one Ms Shirisha Guntaka from Houston, USA requesting help for a young 27 year old woman, J. Susmitha, requiring a kidney transplant. She had come to know about Susmitha as they both hail from Telangana. Moved by the plight of this young girl, Shirisha set up an online fundraiser. “I got their case as a request for donation. Looking at their condition & after studying their financial issues, I started a fundraiser for them, but was unable to rasie the money needed for surgery. I anyway told them to go ahead with the surgery and promised them that I will personally pay if I am unable to get donations.” This Good Samaritan had raised 40% of the surgery cost on the online fundraising campaign on ‘gofundme” but had hit a block thereafter. That’s when she reached out to MOHAN Foundation.

Anudaan Team looked closely at the request and after receiving the required information and the requisite documents, decided to support Susmitha with her transplant. MOHAN Foundation contributed 2 lakhs and also worked closely with the hospital to bring the transplant cost down and Susmitha successfully underwent a kidney transplant on April 1, 2021. 

  1. Susmitha hails from a small village called Aagapet in Telangana.  She is a housewife and mother of a 5 years old son. Susmitha is a Bachelor of Arts in literature (Telugu) and wishes to be a teacher but her dreams are on hold currently because of health problems. While they lived in the village, she had to go to Warangal for dialysis thrice a week. She was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease which started due to Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH). They lost their child at 7 months of pregnancy which is the first time Susmitha got high BP during pregnancy. While she lost the baby, she herself survived but with failed kidneys. 

Susmitha’s husband was an employee at an airport but he had to quit his job when he learned that his wife was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and needed to be taken for dialysis thrice a week. The family has obviously been undergoing financial struggles. When the doctor advised an immediate Kidney Transplant, her mother happily came forward to donate kidney to her beloved daughter. But due to their poor economic situation, the family could not have borne the entire expense of the transplant. That is when they started reaching out to friends and relatives and the word spread.

Both she and her mother have recovered and are slowly returning to a normal life. “I would like to thank MOHAN Foundation from the bottom of my heart for giving me a second life.”-  says Susmitha

Somani Jatothu, Susmitha’s husband says, “I am very happy now. With support from MOHAN Foundation, the transplant went very smoothly without any fear. MOHAN Foundation is truly God’s gift to us.” He now feels confident about returning to a full time job.

After the transplant, Shirisha wrote to the Foundation saying, “We can’t thank you enough for your kind donation! This is a moment where expressing gratitude is beyond words. In addition to helping by donating, you had also sincerely requested hospital management to reduce the surgery cost & got the estimate revised to 8.8 lakhs. You also worked with the transplant coordinator directly and showed that the family is not alone. MOHAN foundations presence and support has made a big difference in making the hospital management understand Susmitha’s financial background & need to reduce cost.”