WARNING: It's long..!
Little girl, 3 years old, admitted to the hospital for a heart problem she's had since birth.. sad, but not unusual..
But right there, near her name, for all to see, is written.. HIV +ve
Not in a hidden paper, not in a limited access file.. but right there, on the big book on the nurses' desk.. for all to see..
" Room Y: patient X Z (her full name), Saudi, 3y, HIV +ve"
Saudi? even more disturbing
An HIV patient in the middle of "normal" patients.. Odd.. (they usually are isolated in a creepy hospital near the port.. totally inhuman!)
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A cute little girl is sitting on the edge of the bed, short straight black hair, little smart eyes, obviously bored.. And her mom is there..
- "Al Salam Alaikom"
- "Wa alaikom al salam"
- "how r u?.. how's cute little X?"
- "she's fine.. waiting for her heart surgery to be scheduled" and she starts talking about the surgery and the doctor with my friend..
( Does the mother know? At such an age she most probably got it from her mother.. so she has it too..)
I smile at the mother..
- "does your daughter have any other disease?"
- "no"
- "did she undergo any surgeries before?" (maybe that's how she got it, you know, especially with the amazing hygiene rules we have in this country, and the fact that no one really bothers to check if hospital staff are actually cleaning instruments between patients)
- "no"
- "so she never got blood from anyone?" (another beautiful example of strict rules; people donate HIV infected blood and hospitals are not checking it properly. A case was in the Saudi news a few months ago of a hospital doing that. The hospital was fined 100,000 S.R. per patient. Nothing was shut down, no one was specifically implicated. Strict, huh?)
- "no"
(It's the mother then..)
- "did u get blood from anyone?"
- "no"
(could she be sleeping around?!.. not really the type. yes, I know, u shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but u gotta go with the odds..)
some chitchat about her age, other kids and stuff..
- "so does ur husband have any other kids? from a previous or second marriage?" (maybe he's married to someone not so.. umm.. "clean")
- "no"
a light bulb goes on in my head
- "did ur husband get any blood?"
silence
she knows
she knows that I know too
she inches closer
wants to look me in the eye but can't
lowers her voice
- "my husband has immune deficiency" (that's a "nicer" way of saying AIDS)
- "how did he get it?" (I don't know how I got the nerve, but I was glad she's honest)
silence
I repeat my question
- "how did he get it? did he take blood from anyone?"
more silence
she looks me in the eye
- "yes, he had a car accident and was given infected blood"
Silence
nothing to say
I tried to smile
- " I hope ur daughter feels better and her surgery goes fine"
what else could i say?
I left..
A man, his wife and their little daughter are all have an untreatable, deadly disease.. and all because of a stupid hospital's mistake..
and I'm still thinking about it till today..
to be continued..
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4 comments:
Oh my God..
This is really devastating..
I mean a stupid, easily dealt with issue, has literally changed a family's life forever.
Aaaaay, I can't even think of this,, my heart is aching..
May Allah bless her and cure them all inshAllah..
dear shimozi: so true.
dear *raf: i have no idea. I was so shocked i didn't even think about that. I'll probably check. Since the kid had it written all over her file, i'm assuming that she's been diagnosed for a while now. The fact that she's had it from her father most probably means that he's had it for at least 3 years (her age). HIV medications are very expensive and i'm not sure if a decent variety is available in the kingdom. I hoep they're getting all the help they need.
dear Murasaki: a lot of hospitals here are "absent-minded".. i've seen a LOT of screwups in the past, but so far, this is the worst.
One thing we've "learnt" by experience; as long as u can avoid it, do NOT take random blood from the blood bank. If you really need it, try to have a relative donate blood and make sure that it is the one they give you.
I don't know if this time the blood was given in a private or public hospital, but in the case that was in the news, it was a private hospital.
Allah yi7meena jamee3an
You never fail to give me goosebumps Dr. Didi :S
The question is why did the father screw the mother and had a baby if he did get infected through a 'blood transfer'? Or did they not find our till the daughter was born?
DAMN IT DIDI im becoming a hygenie complusive freak a little more everyday because of your stories!LOL thanks =)
I wonder how much money we can make if we establish certification agency just for hygenie standards in the ME.
sunshine: I don't think the father knew since the beginning.. that's what's freaky about HIV. It's one of the things that unless ur specifically looking for it, u will not find it, until it's very late.. 10 to 15 years later, when it's full blown AIDS..
Oh honey, the bribes alone will make us billionaires :) Add this to your "wanan have a software company" list :)
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