Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 20, 2015 Features / Columnists, My Column
I happened to be sitting at my desk when a news item about a kidney transplant by a Guyanese doctor hit my eyes. Immediately my mind raced back to so many years ago when a Guyanese with renal failure was condemned to die.
I remember it so well that these days of dialysis in Guyana make such things look like a bad dream. There was Bibi Narine who was ill. She needed a kidney transplant but the thought of such a medical procedure was unthinkable. She found a donor but she did not have the money. She reached out to the government of the day and was all but ignored.
Guyana has good people and they stepped up. Bibi Narine is alive today but the government of the day did not help and she is still bitter. She is only one.
Many years later there came the 5G Dialysis centre. People began to get a new lease on life. Guyana did not have a dialysis centre until then because the then Health Minister, Gail Teixeira, said that there were not too many cases of renal failure in Guyana and in any case storing the chemicals in Guyana was difficult. She was wrong.
I have visited the dialysis centres in Guyana and I am not really surprised at the number of renal failure that exists in Guyana. Some of the people are so young that I wonder what could have caused the kidneys to fail. A doctor said that some of the people are predisposed to renal failure because of family.
A year ago I thought that I would be heading in that direction. I had just come out of the gym when I suddenly felt dizzy. It was a Thursday. By the time the newspaper went to bed I was feeling worse. I went home and watched the ceiling spinning above my head.
The next day was Valentine’s Day. My friend rode his motorcycle under a truck and I had to leave my bed to get the report. I suffered all weekend and went to the doctor on Monday. Lo and behold my sugar level had reached 522, a level that should have placed me in a diabetic coma.
I remember the technician after taking my blood remarking that my kidneys were alright as though they should have been damaged. To cut a long story short, I got my blood sugar level back under control and reduced the extent of renal failure.
But many others were not so fortunate. I have heard somewhere that about nine per cent of the population would suffer renal failure. A team headed by Dr Rahul Jindal came and performed many kidney transplants. Guyana depended on him. Now there is a local doctor who can perform the surgery. But he is only one.
There are others who need to specialize but this is a costly programme and many Guyanese do not have the money to pursue such a post graduate study. I know that because I see many Guyanese struggling to put themselves through law school. These are ordinary people who want to become qualified but they simply do not have the money.
We all look to the government to sponsor such programmes because we have been conditioned to look to the government for just about everything. People say that they are prepared to take loans but they simply do not have the collateral although I do believe that the commercial banks, with their liquidity are prepared to make those loans.
There are many who approach people in the society for help, no matter how small. And to make things worse, the cost of training is mounting. At the same time, there are schools that are prepared to offer scholarships but the students themselves are their worst enemies. After being trained they simply walk away without even considering repayment.
This past week the Finance Minister said that about 10 per cent of the students who took loans have considered repaying. And so we come back to the need for trained people in the medical field. This young doctor, according to reports, has attempted one kidney transplant.
Guyana needs more. In fact it needs the facilities to allow for such operations. At present the Georgetown Public Hospital which is the only option for the ordinary people has limited operating facilities.
If we take a step back we would want to examine the changes we have made in our lives. All of a sudden we are hooked on fast foods and we drink more coca cola (coke) than at any time in our lives. We are less active and we pay less attention to our health. Many of us do not drink enough water, choosing to drink a soda laden with sugar.
I am not going to tell anyone to deny themselves the right to do the things they enjoy but when I see the suffering around me I wonder whether I can’t make people cut back just a little bit and avoid the need for the expensive medical procedure that we can’t afford.
Given the growing incidence of the various lifestyle diseases we also need our schools to focus on a curriculum that would have us produce more doctors. Many of us are chasing money and there is no better way to make money than by being a doctor. Let us focus on the sciences at school. We need those doctors to undertake kidney transplants.
And for Ms Teixiera, the incidence of renal failure is far more common that you wanted to believe.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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