End-Stage Kidney disease

Wahab, an acquaintance of ours, gave us a copy of a medical report with the above mentioned diagnosis. It is about his 24 year old sister, Mariam. The only solution for this patient is a kidney transplant. In the meantime dialysis is what keeps her alive and for which she has been admitted to a hospital in the capital Accra, a 10 hours drive away from where her family lives.

It is not the first time that young people with kidney failure have crossed our path. Over the past two years, two young church members and one cousin died of the disease because dialysis was not an option let alone the possibility of a transplant. The distance to a hospital with dialysis equipment was too far and the treatment for that or for a transplant was far too costly.

Medical facilities in Ghana are slowly improving but there is still a long way to go. Sometimes hospitals have state of the art equipment but lack doctors. Many times doctors are there but they lack the medical equipment. Mostly, specialist treatment is only possible in the big cities in Ghana like Accra and Kumasi and as such out of reach for most patients. Despite the fact that Ghana has a ‘National Health Insurance Scheme’ which is reasonably accessible for the poor, specialist treatments are not covered.

Wahab is the eldest son in his family, is a teacher by profession and father of two small children. All responsibility rests on his shoulders. In addition, he has gone through many medical tests and it is now clear that he can be a donor match to his sister. However, all the stress has made him desperate. The cost of dialysis and a transplant operation is more than €25,000! That is more than 12 years salary and would probably not include the cost of follow-up medical care and medication. Wahab approaches any organisation or person he can think of to come to the aid of his sister but so far he has not been successful.

For small medical treatments we do have a medical fund as a church or sometimes we ourselves contribute to somebody’s treatment. But where we are confronted with situations like that of Mariam, we sometimes wonder whether it is more of a blessing or a curse to know there is possible treatments available but not having the ability to pay for it. Harry Wegdam, a Dutch doctor who worked in Ghana for more than 13 years writes the following in his book, ‘Opereren in Ghana’:

‘I realised how much parental coincidence determines where you are born. Is it here or there? In the Netherlands almost all treatments are being paid for, even if medically chances are poor. Here (Ghana) all decisions are being taken whether to treat or not, with in the background always the question whether there is money or not, with the intention to continue life or let the person die. Bringing our Western advancement all the way to Ghana, without providing the Western entourage and finances, we make the situation for certain cases very painful. In the past we did not know what caused the 24-year old woman to be so sick and we would not be able to treat her. Nature took its course. Now we know and the patients know exactly what is wrong but they miss the money for a good solution and nature continues to do the same.’

In the case of the three young people we’ve known over the past few years who have had kidney failure, their families decided to take care of them as best as possible so that they could die a quiet and peaceful death. It might sound strange, but death seems to be much more part of life here and the way people deal with life and death much more natural and accepted than in the Western world. However, our good friend continues to worry so much and those worries we share with you because he asked us to do so. Please join us in sharing the burden of our friend.