Telangana native Srilekha Kolluru is fighting for her life in the United States after she met with an accident in New York City this week.
Srilekha, who is pursuing her Masters in Computer Science at the at Binghamton University met with an accident at around 7:45 pm on Monday. She was crossing the road after getting down from a bus, and a speeding car hit her.
Unable to afford her medical expenditure, relatives of Srilekha have taken to crowdfunding online to pay for her treatment.
Giridhar Vasireddy, a relative of Srilekha from Fremont, California, wrote that "she suffered from a major head injury and has been on a Ventilator for the past 36 hours. She went through brain surgery and is currently at Wilson Memorial Hospital, Johnson City, NY.”
"What started as an exciting journey with the high hopes of a great future due to the higher studies in US for the only daughter of Kolluru Suresh, now have no words to describe their recent plight. Srilekha Kolluru is an extraordinary student from a middle-class family...an owner of just 2 acres of land, Suresh has an insurmountable task of dealing with the expenses in a foreign country. Let us all help in getting Srilekha back on her feet by contributing financially any which way we can," the online petition reads.
The petition has been widely shared on social media, with many NRIs and the Telugu community pooling in. At the time of writing it had collected $61,940 of its $100k goal.
Srilekha is said to hail from a poor family in Dendukuru village in Madhira mandal in Khammam District. She is the only daughter of her parents.
"As she is a meritorious student, parents have sent her to America with lot of hopes, by taking a bank loan. After this unfortunate incident to their daughter, they applied for their passports and are hoping to come to US at the earliest, and take care of their daughter...Let us all help this young woman fight and recover her injuries, by contributing financially. Let us help make her dreams come true. Let us be with her and let her not give up," the petition adds.
A letter by Dr Christian Tveterstand, who is Srilekha’s doctor and the director trauma surgeon at the United Health Services (UHS) hospital, said that her injuries were 'severe' and 'life-threatening', and requested the authorities to issue an emergency visa to her parents.
The petition also has a letter from the University, which makes the same request to the consular officer.
The link to the petition can be found here.