Hyderabad: For the parents of a two-month-old girl who underwent life-saving heart surgery, gratitude towards the officer who helped connect them to treatment took an unusual turn on Monday. They brought the baby to the Prajavani grievance programme and asked Khammam Municipal Corporation commissioner Abhishek Agastya to name her.The baby, born to Kampati Rakesh and Madhavi of Khammam district on May 9, was diagnosed with a heart ailment 12 days later. Her grandmother, Narasamma, a Group IV employee with the Khammam Municipal Corporation, brought the matter to the commissioner’s attention.Agastya then helped connect the family with an NGO working in the healthcare sector. With its assistance, ₹14 lakh was arranged for the baby’s surgery. The operation was performed on July 28, following which the child recovered.With the baby now doing well, the parents decided to express their gratitude by asking Agastya to name their daughter. They brought her to the Prajavani programme on Monday and requested the commissioner.Speaking to TOI, Agastya, however, played down his role in the child’s recovery. “It is not my thing. All the credit goes to the doctors and the NGO who actually helped the baby. I only connected them,” he said.The parents had suggested the first letter of the baby’s name, following which Agastya named her ‘Yashika Sri’ during the Prajavani programme.For the family, the naming ceremony marked the end of an anxious few weeks that began with the discovery of the infant’s heart condition and culminated in her successful surgery and recovery.
