Patients need care and love from relatives to recover well
 
2008-05-11 11:09:05
By Editor

One would not imagine that among the citizens of this country known for its kind people, there are some who would abandon their family members in hospitals. But this is happening.

We instead expect that once a family member falls sick, these people would seek medical consultation and treatment and go on caring for their sick fully, offering the needed love and compassion.

This week this paper witnessed a number of patients at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) in Dar es Salaam who said they have been dumped and abandoned there by their relatives for a long time, some for between one month and a year.

Looking haggard and heartbroken these poor souls complained of neglect by their parents and relatives who they said left them just after admission at the hospital.

The relatives were duty bound to provide them with food from home and other necessities like bathing soap.

We fail to understand what could be so disturbingly serious as to deter members of family from seeing to the well-being of their sick one for a week, a month or a year.

It has been medically proven that consolation and just being there to talk to and share time with these patients is a very important part of the healing process.

The sick feel elated and refreshed every time they get a visit from a relative.

No doubt the situation need serious looking into to establish a mechanism of ensuring that these hapless people are reunited with their kith and kin to help them move more quickly through the recovery process.

Family members must be educated on their responsibilities to care for their sick.

They must be made to understand that it is in their interest and benefit that the sick are given all the available encouragement to recover well.

• SOURCE: Sunday Observer