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Dumped patients at MOI suffer double agony
2008-05-11 11:29:13
By Lucas Lukumbo
Victor Christian (21) a patient at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) is still in pain after he fell from a coconut tree last year at Tegeta Kibaoni, in Dar es Salaam.
Neither his parents, relatives nor his friends have ever visited him since he was admitted there last July.
Through messages delivered via people who had gone to see their patients, Victor had tried to get his parents to visit him but in vain, increasing his frustration!
``I want to see my parents here at the hospital. I want to repent before them if at all I have wronged them in any way so that I can die happily,`` the vividly nostalgic Victor told me at his hospital bed.
According to the MOI Public Relations Officer, Jumaa Almasi, MOI has virtually become a dumping place for patients.
``More and more patients are being dumped by their parents occasioning the institute to spend millions of shillings to treat, feed and transport them to their respective homes when they are discharged,`` he says.
He says last year alone the institute spent 35m/- to cover investigations, food, treatment and transport for tens of patients who were dumped at the hospital. ``We sent patients back home as far as Kigoma, Mbeya, Mwanza, Mtwara and Sumbawanga regions.``
According to the official, the institute has a cost-sharing procedure with those who have the financial capability to foot bills but with exemptions for children below five years old, the elderly from 60 years old and people living with HIV/Aids.
Others are patients suffering from sickle cell, TB, diabetes, epilepsy and those who have been referred from regional hospitals.
For a private patient the charge is 35,000/- a day in a shared room while one has to pay 55,000/- for a single patient room per day. This covers expenses for food, nursing care and consultation.
Charges for operation, drugs and others are paid separately and a patient in the general category pays 50,000/- for all expenses.
There are four categories of patients dumped at the institute`s wards. ``There are those who have been sent by their relatives who do not return to hear the progress of their patients,`` he says.
``There are also people who bring their patients at the hospital but after realizing that the costs are staggering, they simply vanish,`` he says, adding that a CT scanning - a special type of X-Ray - would cost 100,000/-. They do not realize that in private hospitals this scan could cost them more than 175,000/-.
``We are incurring the costs if relatives are not forthcoming,`` he says, adding that there are those who go on their own after being involved in an accident.
``At times we think these people are without relatives, but when we inquire about their homes we find people who are able but do not want to attend to their patients.
``It is strange to note that even spouses dump each other here after one of them is in bad condition, in breach of the vow to live together in whatever circumstances,`` he remarked.
Patients admitted at MOI are mostly those with spinal injury paralysis which takes a long time to heal and many relatives see the task of going to attend their sick as time consuming and costly.
Victor Christian`s case is touching. He fell down from a coconut tree at Tegeta Kibaoni after a neighbour had asked him to harvest coconuts and get paid for it; a normal practice.
He says his father did not want him to climb coconut trees `` although he used to ask me for money I earned from the work.``
He was paid 1,000/- per `trip` up a tree. ``On that particular day I was helping a friend of mine who was given the job of climbing three coconut trees.
``He did so on two of them and asked me to climb the last one. I fell down after a dry leaf on which I stood broke from the main tree. I fell with it, sustaining injuries. Now I am completely paralyzed from the waist down to the legs.``
He says his father Christian Mbega got very bitter with him, swearing not to attend to him at the hospital.
``He has even barred relatives from seeing me, saying I was not obeying him. Yes I have wronged my father but I did not expect him to stay all this long without coming to see me,`` he said amid tears.
When this writer went to Victor’s home at Tegeta, his father Christian Mbega, a mason, could not be contacted as he was pitched in a construction site away from home.
Victor`s sister Mama Paulo was elusive.
When asked a question, she asked if she could go to fetch charcoal for cooking as the charcoal seller would close his shop.
She never came back even as this reporter waited for her in the corridors of her house until dark.
Neighbours said they have pleaded with Mbega to forgive his son, but Victor`s father was unyielding.
Others dumped at the institute`s wards include Rutema Maduu (35) from Mwanza.
He is appealing to his relatives Elisha Mtemi, Tito Rubenza and Jamhuri Rubenza and Mremi Maguha to come to his rescue.
Others are Juma Kilimba (64) from Mbweni, Bagamoyo and Jovini Hussein (75) from Morogoro. They have spent between two months and nearly a year without seeing their relatives or parents.
Another patient is Rogers Shabani who claimed he had come from Temeke in the city. Nurses have classified the patient as unknown as he was admitted while in comma and was unable to narrate his story well.
``It will be very difficult to get his parents as he does not remember where he came from although he only remembers a car coming towards his direction. It could be that he was involved in an accident,`` MOI Senior Social Welfare Officer, Mary Michael Ochieng, told this paper.
Asked to comment on why people dump their patients, Ochieng said many feel that looking after such severely injured patients was a burden.
``It could be that the severity of injury inflicted upon the patients makes people feel they cannot attend them,`` she said adding: ``Just like the way people living with HIV/Aids were being stigmatized, patients of such category were also stigmatized because many of them cannot help themselves. One has to take them to the toilet,`` she said.
Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) is an autonomous institution established through an Act of Parliament of 1996 aimed at providing care for preventive and curative health services in the field of Orthopaedic, Traumatology and Neurosurgery.
It also serves as a rehabilitation centre for patients requiring long-term rehabilitation services.
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