It was a long journey from an automobile accident to comatose to semi-conscious to fully conscious state to critical care to general ward to outpatient therapy to long-term rehab in India. But, we the volunteer team pulled it through along with Sai Prasad Boddu. Congratulations to the volunteer team for the job well done.

As you know, Sai Prasad Boddu, now 28, who graduated from the University of North Texas, Denton, TX met with a major automobile accident on an ill-fated night of Oct. 16, 2004, that left him with severe shears in his brain.

Sai Boddu a graduate student of BITS, Pilani came to the US from India on a student Visa had no medical insurance, no income and very few friends in the United States Now, Sai is in full conscious state, can move his both legs and arms freely, recognizes everyone, responds very well to all questions, can write and say few words including I’m fine in a low voice though he can’t walk yet. He gets nourishment through only feeding tubes. As per Doctors, he needs to go through a long-term rehab and only time will tell how soon he can can fully recover.

Boddu family has decided to take Sai back to India when Doctors told them that there was nothing more they could do for him, he is fit to travel, needs to be in a long term care, and provided the necessary home-care medical equipment and supplies for a week. Laxmi Praveena the sister of Sai who is a Doctor by profession has learned how to care for her brother.

Fortunately, with the help of one of my good friends at Lufthansa, we were able to get two business class tickets at a very high discounted price and a free business class upgrade to Mrs. Boddu on Lufthansa. Boddu family left to India on Dec. 26th from D/FW and reached home safe. Just, I spoke with the family who are on their way to Bombay Hospital.

Sai’s father Mr. Kanaka Das Boddu called from India to specially thank the whole community for taking care of his son during this horrendous period of his life. Mr. Boddu mentioned that he had made all arrangements with Bombay Hospital where Sai would be admitted for a long-term rehab.

I specially thank Sai Kolli, Praveen Malraj, CK Mandava, Daniel Mutyala, Korie Wagner, Vikranth Bangaru, Vijay Vemapti, Synthia Morrison, TANTEX President Chukkala S. Rao, volunteers from ISA-UNT, BITS, Dallas Methodist Hospital staff and hundreds of people who have contributed.

“I was moved by the generosity of our Indian American community, they have been giving from the heart to help someone in need, people who read about Boddu have been a steady resource for the family since the accident. We were able to rise close to $40,000 which was earmarked for his long term rehab expenses.”

ISA of UNT, alumni of BITS, local and foreign newspapers, websites and many more people played a key role in spreading the word about, generating funds, sharing the responsibilities to help out Sai Boddu.

We have mailed out receipts to all donors with a cover letter. We are closing the account by the end of next month and still accepting contributions up to Jan 31st, 2005.