It is an honor to start the GMM Trust in memory of my late father. As a caring father, he did not let me know how serious his condition was thinking it might worry me. One day, I got a call saying that he is in a terminal condition and is admitted to a hospital in another state. I immediately traveled from the US by taking a long sabbatical from the University. I reached the hospital only to see my father with rare cancer and in a very horrific condition in an ICU with a broken spinal cord, kidney dysfunction, chronic sepsis infections, and stage-3 cancer. He was unconscious with all the machines hooked up to him and for a moment he saw me and said “You are here!” and closed his eyes again. I could not bear the sight. After a week in ICU, doctors tried to give his first chemotherapy but he got reactive and send to the ICU again in even worse condition as this new medicine reacted with his heart and he was put on a ventilator. The doctor gave us no hope and said to me personally that a miracle should happen for him to survive.

A miracle happened, he came out of the ventilator and soon from the ICU. He was then given new chemotherapy and medicine to strengthen his spinal cord. It took him 2 months in a hospital for him to be in a stable condition and a full 6 months of treatment for him to walk. Then we all agreed it is best for him to get a bone-marrow transplant which is a tough procedure. After the transplant, everything seemed fine and I returned to the US to continue my education. Unfortunately, the transplant did not result in success. Just after 3 months, his disease started progressing. There are very limited chemo medicines for his condition but there is a medicine called Daratumumab which supposedly has better results and fewer side effects but costs around USD 2200 per dose and should be given weekly. I made a decision to start the new chemotherapy and fortunately, it worked on him. He went into remission with some side effects and had the strength to go to school and teach. He dealt with hundreds of hospital admissions as he was very susceptible to infections and even the simple flu can be chronic to him. And for the worst, COVID-19 started spreading in the country and he had to be extremely careful during those times. It was a war that my father fought for 5 years and it is a tough journey for our family as well, mentally and financially. Later, He slowly relapsed into high reactive cancer and no medicine worked on his weak body.

He passed away in pain. I wish no man have such suffering.

My mother left her teaching job and took care of my father for these 5 years. It is a full-time job to serve a cancer patient as she had to become a nurse handling his chemotherapy and also as a servant. Hats off to her patience and love toward him. I can proudly say that it is not just the medicine that helped him survive these years but also my mother’s care.

Initially, A mistake was made in diagnosing my father, which resulted in cancer progression. There was no proper facility or doctor to diagnose him with Multiple Myeloma, which is still saddening to me that he spent over 6 months around hospitals to figure out what is happening to him. The health insurance and the government subsidies did not cover his rare illness. We faced a major financial crisis as we had to pay for every treatment with cash. I was blessed with many family members and friends who lent me money in those tough times.

That made me wonder how a poor family can afford such treatments. Over many hospital visits, I have seen many poor and ill people who could not afford some simple treatments. Even with government subsidies in India, there will be out-of-pocket costs which is far reaching for many people. And sometimes, rare illnesses are not covered by the government or other health insurance. Which puts a family in the dead zone. I have witnessed many people around me who gave up on getting their serious illnesses treated as they could not pay the amount after subsidies.

This is the very first reason why I started the GMM Trust. This trust was started with strong core values like transparency to the public and providing medical needs for the poor. I will strive towards making this trust a helping hand that people rely on when they need medical financial assistance. My ambition is to start a medical research institute and hospital which provides access to cutting-edge medicines, and advanced clinical trials for rare medical conditions.

I dream of no one suffering as my father did. I dream of no one having financial adversity to get treatments. I dream of people living healthy and happy.

Sincerely,
Bharath Bushan Garapaty.