Battle for life: Baby's yet to cry

Dubai: Aastha Shetty was born on May 12. A month and a half down the line, she is yet to cry.

Worse, her tiny frame is connected to several tubes and pipes as she remains inactive, has no visual following and is unable to feed by mouth.

As she battles for life in an incubator at Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, her distraught mother, Ashwini Shetty, is appealing for help to treat the little one.

"I know my child is in a very critical condition, but as a parent I want to do the best I can till she is in my care," she said.

Ashwini said the trauma began when she was in her seventh month of pregnancy and the baby in her womb began to gasp for breath due to loss of fluid in the uterus. It came as a rude shock to her as she had conceived after nine long years since the birth of her first child.

"Everything was going well and I don't understand how the fluid loss could go undetected during my regular check-ups," said Ashwini who was consulting a private clinic in Sharjah.

She said she was forced to undergo an emergency C-section at a private hospital in Sharjah where Aastha was born at 36 weeks and three days. She was not breathing initially but subsequently began to respond although there was considerable damage to her brain.

The medical report has diagnosed Aastha with "severe perinatal birth asphyxia with intra-ventricular bleeds and neo-natal convulsions". She is also afflicted with a severe brain injury with fluid collection but a shunt operation to remove the fluid cannot be done until her condition improves.

"The neurosurgeons have recommended periodic ventricular taps until her condition stabilises when a VP shunt will be performed," she said.

But all of this costs money, which the family can ill afford. "We have already spent Dh25,000 on her treatment in Sharjah," said Ashwini who works as an export coordinator with a private food company at Jebel Ali.

She said her husband works with a realty company and they do not have any insurance.

"We have no clue how long the treatment will take or how many surgeries have to be performed. All the treatments are sensitive and very expensive," she said, worried about how the family will foot the mounting bills.

She said taking Aastha to her home country, India, is also not an option given her present condition. "Besides, the arrangements and cost of shifting her are too much.

"We will be grateful for any help we can get," she added.

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Reader's issue raised

Excursion ticket

I read with keen interest and fully agree with Ms Beverley D'Cruz's letter (‘Travel travails', Gulf News, April 12, 2011). I have a similar unresolved grievance against Emirates. Please allow me to explain.

I held a confirmed Emirates excursion ticket (Dxb-Fra-Dxb). On February 3, 2011, I arrived at the Emirates check-in queue at Terminal 3 of the Dubai International Airport at 12pm. After waiting in line and meeting with the person at the counter, I was redirected to counter B57, and the representative there asked me to wait as he believed that the flight was overbooked and I would not be allowed to board the flight.

An argument followed wherein I insisted that I needed to board the flight.

I also informed him that I had not eaten and was thirsty and intended to have lunch after entering the airport. All the while I was not offered even a sip of water, in spite of me asking for one.

After waiting for over an hour, I called the Emirates contact centre on 04-2144444 at 1.05pm. After explaining my plight, I handed over my mobile phone to the person at the counter so that they could speak with each other and assist me.

Thereafter, even though I was promised that they would put me on the flight in "a few minutes", it didn't happen. It was only at 1.45pm that I was redirected to yet another counter when my boarding pass was finally issued. Consequently, I didn't have the time to have a meal.

I wrote to Emirates complaining about this appalling experience. Their threat to offload me and the ensuing behaviour, was preposterous, to say the least.

I categorically asked them to address the following questions:

Why did they threaten to bump me off the flight, considering the fact that I was a full-fare paying passenger with a confirmed seat? Additionally, I had also arrived in good time at the check-in counter at the airport.Does Emirates not believe in arranging for even drinking water for its passengers, considering you have been the cause for holding back a passenger?

Repeated reminders to customer.affairs@emirates.com finally resulted in a baseless, erroneous and superfluous response. May I request Gulf News to intervene, not only on my behalf but also on behalf of Emirates' entire passenger base and demand an explanation from Emirates.

I also urge you to print my letter highlighting my plight as well, to inspire others to share their experience with Emirates.

From Mr Nikeel Idnani
Dubai 

An Emirates spokesperson responds: Emirates thanks Mr Idnani for his letter to Gulf News. Our Customer Affairs team are already in direct contact with him regarding this matter. 

Mr Idnani responds: Please note that Emirates has been in touch with me no doubt, but without any solution/commitments. 

Editor's note: The follow-up letter was forwarded to Emirates for further comments. However, its management said that they had nothing further to add.

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Schools with good leadership produce excellent students

Dubai: The success or failure of a school depends, to a large extent, on the leadership of the school, a school leadership expert said Wednesday.

"Teachers make the biggest difference in the improvement of any school and the leadership of the school is the second biggest factor for improvement," Geoff Southworth, a UK-based school leadership expert told a workshop organised for public school teachers by the Regional Centre for Education Planning (RCEP).

"In the United Kingdom, 20 years of school inspection have shown that [for] every 100 schools with good leadership, about 93 will have a good standard of education. On the contrary, for every 100 schools with poor leadership, only one will have good standard of education," he said.

The workshop, which was held at the University City of Sharjah yesterday, was organised by RCEP in association with Unesco and the UAE Ministry of Education.

Hotly-debated topic

While school leadership is a hotly-debated topic among the teaching fraternity worldwide, there is growing consensus on the nature and practice of effective school leadership, Southworth said.

According to a document published in 2008 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, effective school leadership policies include the clear definition of the role of leaders, the need to encourage and support more leaders, and measures to development of capabilities. It also includes measures highlighting school leadership as an attractive profession and the recruitment of effective leaders.

"If teachers and [the] leadership of a school are improved, then there will be huge improvement, which can further be bettered by engaging parents in the process," Southworth said.

Extensive research

The UK-based expert bases his comments on extensive research and teaching experience, apart from various studies conducted worldwide.

Southworth's findings are synchronous with the findings of school inspections in Dubai by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

Earlier this month, while announcing the inspection results of public schools, Jameela Al Muhairi, head of the Dubai School Inspection Bureau at the KHDA, said that the leadership of the school and a desire to improve were the only reasons why many schools overcame hurdles and showed improvement.

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