Heart touching: Kalam - Raju stent

No one need to be informed about the working of a `STENT` in the heart surgery. Placing stents in the arteries is now a common practice during the angioplasty. In the early 90's these stents were imported and hence costly... pricing around Rs. 60,000/-

Once Soma Raju of CARE foundation while chatting with Abdul Kalam , brought in the subject of costly stents. Normal people do leave the problem or just think over it. Very few get restless till they find the solution. Kalam was one such person! Both Kalam and Raju has decided to make a cheaper alternative for the imported stents.

Kalam has already been the founder chairman of `The Society for Biomedical Technology` (SBMT) which was established under DRDO  in association with Department of Science and Technology (DST), and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The aim of SBMT is to apply the latest technology to the medicine.

Kalam along with his associates like Tiwari has tried a stent made of stainless steel which was otherwise used in naval ships. Such material was found to allow maximum flow of blood without any damage. It was indeed first coronary stent developed in India!

The Kalam - Raju stent was an instant hit. Thousands of patients got implanted with it for a meagre 15,000/- SBMT has later developed a lot of procedures and instruments that has become the integral part of Indian Medical History. Prominent of them being the artificial limbs. The weight of artificial limbs that once were around 4 k.g was drastically cut down to 400 grams!

 "I had seen these children struggling with the artificial limbs that weighed at least 4 kg. My team made one with composite heat materials used for rockets. This one is 10 times lighter," Kalam once said. That's not the end of his speech "When we launched the first indigenous rocket SPV 3, when we successfully sent Agni and tested nuclear weapons in Pokran, I was really very happy. But today when I see children run around and cycle with the artificial limbs we designed, it is sheer bliss"

...And let his soul be in bliss forever...
 

- NIRJARA.