Patient in Chey Chumneas hospitalMonday, November 30, 2009
Independent Catholic News
“They turned my patient away because she was HIV positive.” Discrimination of people living with HIV is found in every layer of society. Dr Vuthy King, from CAFOD partner Maryknoll, explains how he is working to stamp out stigma in the medical profession
“Some hospitals in Cambodia do not like to operate on people living with HIV. In Phnom Penh there are eight hospitals. In my experience, only two will operate on HIV-positive patients.
“This is not hospital policy, but a decision made by the surgeons. If medical professionals discriminate against HIV-positive people, you can imagine what kind of reactions they face from the public in general.
“A few years ago, I had a patient with appendicitis. I sent the patient to the nearest hospital at 9pm. But they said they wouldn’t operate on her because she had HIV. She would have to wait until 9am the next day so they could hold a meeting to discuss her case.
“When I went back at 10am, they rejected her from the hospital. By this time she was in a critical condition. I drove her to another hospital but they also refused to treat her. Finally the third hospital I went to accepted her.
“The Maryknoll hospice opened in 2000. We were the first non-governmental organisation in Cambodia to open a free hospice for poor people living with HIV.
“Almost 1,000 patients have used this hospice since it opened. Many would have died without the care they received here. Some poor people sell everything, their land, livestock, and home, to pay for medical bills because hospital fees are expensive.
“But when they recover they have no way to support themselves. It is a vicious trap for poor people. “We treat those with opportunistic infections like TB or meningitis. We also do complicated medical procedures like lumbar punctures but we’re not equipped to perform full operations.
“Recently, we opened a specialist HIV wing in Chey Chumneas hospital. We provide consultations with the patients and assess their needs. People travel from miles around to come and see us because they know they will receive the best staff. We are teaching hospital staff to treat HIV positive people with respect and care."
“Some hospitals in Cambodia do not like to operate on people living with HIV. In Phnom Penh there are eight hospitals. In my experience, only two will operate on HIV-positive patients.
“This is not hospital policy, but a decision made by the surgeons. If medical professionals discriminate against HIV-positive people, you can imagine what kind of reactions they face from the public in general.
“A few years ago, I had a patient with appendicitis. I sent the patient to the nearest hospital at 9pm. But they said they wouldn’t operate on her because she had HIV. She would have to wait until 9am the next day so they could hold a meeting to discuss her case.
“When I went back at 10am, they rejected her from the hospital. By this time she was in a critical condition. I drove her to another hospital but they also refused to treat her. Finally the third hospital I went to accepted her.
“The Maryknoll hospice opened in 2000. We were the first non-governmental organisation in Cambodia to open a free hospice for poor people living with HIV.
“Almost 1,000 patients have used this hospice since it opened. Many would have died without the care they received here. Some poor people sell everything, their land, livestock, and home, to pay for medical bills because hospital fees are expensive.
“But when they recover they have no way to support themselves. It is a vicious trap for poor people. “We treat those with opportunistic infections like TB or meningitis. We also do complicated medical procedures like lumbar punctures but we’re not equipped to perform full operations.
“Recently, we opened a specialist HIV wing in Chey Chumneas hospital. We provide consultations with the patients and assess their needs. People travel from miles around to come and see us because they know they will receive the best staff. We are teaching hospital staff to treat HIV positive people with respect and care."
4 comments:
The government fails to educate the professional, the public and services to the needy.
Thanks to hanoi Ph.D
May God bless all your staff to have good heart to treat patients no matter who they are and what's their condition.
I know it will take a long time for some Khmer doctors to live up to the code of ethics in their professional field. They want to be doctors because money driven not humaniterian cause.
hiv may not kills, but stigma does!
i think there are more deadly diseases in the world than hiv, unless hiv becomes aids. there's a difference between having hiv and having aids. i think hiv will only progress to aids if people don't take care of their health like taking meds, or reexpose or co-infected with hepitus B or C, however hiv alone do not kill people. remember, it is an opportunistic disease, meaning you only get sick from weak immune system. that say, it is still dangerous to be diagnosis with hiv because not everyone has the same access to drugs for hiv, you know, not to meaning the many side-effects of them, etc. i think TB, cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, etc kill more people. i think hiv is just becoming another common diseases all over the world . just because someone is exposed or diagnosed with hiv doesn't mean they are going to die from it, given it is manageable nowadays. everyone will die one way or another, so the key is to take good care of one's health and one self as in prevention, etc... it is everyone's responsibility to help educate and prevent it altogether, really. god bless.
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