Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 04, 2016 News
The members of a recently formulated non-governmental organization (NGO) intended to
represent the rights of persons with sickle cell anaemia are contemplating protest action after two of its members were denied medication to ease unbearable pain.
The patients, Samantha Felix and Sabrina Kazim, the latter being the President of FACES, the recently established NGO, were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) last Wednesday night each suffering from a sickle cell anaemia-related crisis.
Kazim, during an interview with this publication, disclosed that both she and Felix were first attended to at the GPHC, but there was no medication available there to quell their pain. According to Kazim, when this occurs the public hospital usually refers them to a private hospital based on an existing arrangement. This was the case on Wednesday.
But according to Kazim while at the private hospital (name withheld) not only did the nurses and administrator deny her and Felix medication, but they were “hostile and rude”.
This was in spite of the fact that the two patients were referred to the private hospital complete with prescriptions from the public hospital. Both patients have suffered from crises throughout their lives and have had encounters with medical personnel who had refused to give them pain relievers such as morphine or pethidine.
The refusal, according to a tearful Kazim, is usually based on the belief of some health care workers that sicklers (sickle cell patients) seek after the pain medication merely to satisfy an addiction.
It was to put an end to such thinking, that FACES was established with the support of the Ministry of Public Health and the GPHC.
An individual can develop sickle cell anaemia when both of their parents have the sickle cell trait. Sickle cell is a severe hereditary form of anaemia in which a mutated form of haemoglobin distorts the red blood cells into a
crescent (or sickle) shape at low oxygen levels.
Kazim, like many others inflicted with sickle cell anaemia, has suffered all her life from excruciating pain that is commonly associated with the disease and constantly requires blood and opium or narcotic-type drugs to help ease their pain.
According to Kazim, although both she and Felix had documents to prove they were referred by the GPHC Wednesday night, a nurse at the private hospital insisted that they see a doctor at institution.
In fact Kazim disclosed that the nurse harshly informed “‘if you don’t have money, you are dead’.”
“The reason we go to the public hospital is because there is no consultation fee attached. Sometimes the fee alone (at the private hospital) is as much as $5,000…so we went to Georgetown Hospital where they wrote the prescription and we were prepared to pay for the medication, but we can’t always pay for consultation too,” explained Kazim.
Describing the withholding of pain medication for sicklers as an act of “discrimination”, Kazim recalled being humiliated while in excruciating pain.
“Imagine I was begging a health care provider for help and she refused me that help…she even told the security guard, I understand, not to let us back into the compound when we leave.”
Kazim arrived at the private hospital at around 21:00 hours on Wednesday and left at 22:30 hours in even more pain. The same was Felix’s fate.
Both women are mothers who hope to see their children grow into adulthood. But according to Kazim, bearing the pain during a crisis often leaves many sicklers like herself contemplating suicide as the solution to their problem.
“Sometimes the pain is so much and all we ask for, is for medication to get us through…if I didn’t need the medication I wouldn’t want it but the pain is so bad sometimes,” said an emotional Kazim.
Kazim has made a formal report to the Guyana Medical Council about the denial of medication and hopes that the treatment meted out to sicklers will soon become a thing of the past.
“I am generally a strong person, but sometimes it is unbearable,” said Kazim of the pain she sometimes experiences.
According to her, FACES also plans on reaching out to the Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, to look into the state of affairs, but she added that FACES may very well have to spearhead a peaceful protest action in its quest to intensity its efforts at raising awareness about the needs of sicklers.
“We are not going to go down; we are going to fight,” Kazim insisted. She firmly added “I want to live, so I’m not going to sit here and wish I was dead, but I wish I had a better quality of life.”
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