Three weeks after the passing away of 10-year-old Farhaan Havewala (pictured) on November 30, 2017 while at assembly at Caelum High School in Poona, his maternal grandmother Marilyn Postwalla filled us in about the details surrounding the abrupt end of the young life in a conversation on December 21. The Pune Mirror (PM) had reported on December 1 that the boy had died of cardiac arrest in School.
According to the 74-year-old erstwhile teacher and primary school teacher-trainer, Farhaan was detected with "a very, very slight heart defect” at age six, after a routine medical check. "Doctor after doctor assured us that this was a very minor condition... people with that condition can live till they are 90....” Postwalla described to us the class five student’s routine: "He was an active child, played games and swam. His yearly medical checkups after the condition was detected were never alarming.” Ten days prior to his passing away, Farhaan went for a routine check with his mother Ferieda; the doctors had told the mother that they could reduce the frequency of tests to once every five years.
"Both his pediatrician and the pediatric cardiologist were aghast to hear of Farhaan’s passing away,” narrated Postwalla. "The medical condition of the child did not lead to his passing... It was probably arrhythmia... sadly not detectable in any post mortem,” the grandmother maintained. The American Heart Association defines arrhythmia as "any change from the normal sequence of electrical impulses. The electrical impulses may happen too fast, too slowly, or erratically.” The PM report quoted Dr Ajay Chandanwala, dean of B. J. Medical College where the body of Farhaan was taken for a post mortem: "The boy had an acute septal defect (ASD) which caused the death. There was a hole in the upper chamber of his heart which led to the condition. In such cases, the pure and impure blood in the heart gets mixed, causing a life threatening condition to the patient.” Postwalla states that "neither of his parents has got any post mortem report...how can the media say that?”
"It could have happened to anyone at any age, but a relatively rare condition in one so young,” Postwalla was assured by the doctors. Recently a little boy in Perth (Tyreez Mundroina) passed away in a similar situation, she pointed out (see "Life is so fragile,” Zoroastrians Abroad, Parsiana, January 7, 2017). A lot of people ask us how this could have been prevented...I do not know how to answer them... there was no threat anyway,” Postwalla claimed.
All praise for the presence of mind of the School director Monica Thadaney, who put the collapsed boy into her car and reached Ruby Hall Clinic "in just six minutes after alerting them of their arrival in advance,” Postwalla stated that Thadaney was an erstwhile student of hers and Ferieda. The lad did not respond to attempts to revive him.
"I am so grateful for the way family members, host of friends, students and ex students, and total strangers rallied around Ferieda after the event and during the four-day after-death prayers that were held in the Cantabile Institute of Piano, Voice and Speech that Fereida runs. Ervad Ardaviraf Sinor, also a family member, was "most supportive... he stood by Ferieda like a rock.” The body of the little boy was cremated. "While I have great respect for Zoroastrianism, I wanted a clean end for my grandson,” says the part-British, part-Parsi Postwalla.
"We have resumed our work a few days ago after the most horrendous episode of our lives,” she told us. Farhaan’s 12-year-old sister Freiya misses him. "She talks to him... she takes his opinion on school work... Children have a strong coping mechanism.”