A SAD SITUATION
What do you make of this sad situation? From the BBC website,
A terminally-ill Ghanaian woman who was forced to return home after her UK visa expired is struggling to receive the medical treatment she needs.
Ama Sumani, 39, who has cancer and requires kidney dialysis, was removed from a Cardiff hospital and flown back to her home country on Wednesday. But she says she is unable to get care because she cannot pay hospital fees. UK officials said they had checked medical treatment was available in Ghana before she was flown home. Read the complete story here
You really can't fault the British; they felt the lady could get dialysis in Ghana. What I don't understand about our governments in Africa is that these facilities are paid for with money from national resources and taxes so why should people be denied treatment for life threatening conditions? I remember when we were in medical school, the doctor just had to certify that you were indigent and you got treatment.
We have the most privatized healthcare here in America, yet almost everyone needing emergency treatment will get it regardless of whether they can afford it and they are careful to build community facilities like Cook County and Dallas Parkland.
Our attitude to our own people is so terrible. The value we place on ourselves is the value others give to us. Do we have the right to expect a foreigner to treat any Ghanaian better when they hear this? The Christian is the voice of the society and I believe our churches need to take the government to task on this one. I also personally feel guilty because I do not do enough for my own. - Alien Warrior
Here is an update on the story from the BBC Correspondent in Accra.
posted by AlienWarrior @ 2:17 PM
1 Comments:
totally agree with you on the behavior of our government. But UK government could have prevented this whole PR fiasco. There was a very critical editorial in the Lancet about it and I think many in the UK are also shamed of their government's behavior. In principle they've every right to deport her because she had broken the law but I think it was very insensitive and inhumane to pick her up from the Hospital for "voluntary removal".
Her life expectancy is probably less than 1 year- Calorius is probably better qualified to comment on that, and rather than risk this bad publicity, a heavy dose of mercy and kindness till her death was a better choice. Why the Ghana High Commission rep. in London gave an assurance that dialysis was available for her in Ghana is difficult to understand. Technically true if you can afford it; well now, the whole world knows that in Ghana we leave our citizens with chronic kidney disease or irreversible acute renal failure to die if they can’t pay for dialysis.
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