Coal firm gives Rs 16 cr to employee for daughter’s SMA treatment injection

Korba: South Eastern Coalfields Limited has handed over a cheque of Rs 16 crore to an employee whose 2-year-old daughter is suffering from a rare ailment called Spinal Muscular Atrophy and requires an imported injection called Zolgensma of that amount, an official said on Saturday.

The cheque was handed over on Friday Satish Kumar Ravi, who works as an overman, said SECL Dipka project mining general manager Shashank Shekhar Dewangan.

Ravi’s daughter, Shristi Rani, is suffering from SMA, a genetic disorder in which a person can’t control the movement of muscles due to loss of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain stem, and Zolgensma injection, which costs Rs 16 crore and has to be imported from the United States of America, is required as part of the treatment, Dewangan said.

The child was diagnosed with SMA in December last year, and she is on portable ventilator support at her home in Dipka currently after undergoing treatment stints at AIIMS Delhi and SECL-empanelled Apollo Hospital in Bilaspur.

Coal India Limited (CIL), of which SECL is a part, has set an exemplary example by showing that employees and their families are the real wealth of an establishment and saving their lives at any cost is the first and foremost job, he added.