My continual advocacy for patient safety positioned me in front of an HIV infected person few days ago who was narrating how a medical doctor reacted to her when her results showed reactive for HIV. This is a true story but for the safety of the client due to stigmatization and possible ridicule from her circles, I am going to use anonymous characters to tell how this sad moment befell her.
She started like this:
I have been sick for several days and have been admitted on three occasions in a month. I am always given treatment but the body pains, fever and loss of appetite (anorexia) continue to affect my life. On my fourth visit to the hospital, I met a doctor (1st doctor) who recommended that since all medications seemed not to be working, I do some further laboratory tests to help him assess me critically.
The tests included, HIV screening, Blood culture, full blood count and syphilis test. I remember telling the doctor I was just 19 and I have had only one sexual encounter, so why HIV? After all I hadn’t lost weight and wasn’t experiencing any of the commonly known symptoms of HIV/AIDS infection. Fortunately, the doctor insisted the tests were necessary, who was I to be adamant?
I went to the Lab where my blood was taken for the tests. I was told to come for one of the test results later in the day and the other in a week’s time. I could not return same day, so I went the next day. I picked the results and sent it to the consulting room with my folder to see the doctor.
Unfortunately for me I met a different doctor (2nd doctor) this time. He went through my folder and asked of the test results. I gave him the results and he didn’t talk for about three minutes. He was just looking at me and flipping through the folder. I quizzed what the results implied but he insisted it was fine and everything was ok. He instead wanted me do another test in a laboratory across the street for him to confirm something, which I did.
I picked the results three days after and sent it to him. As he saw the results, he shouted immediately “you are sick. You are really sick”. I lamented even as I asked, “What is wrong with me?” I said sorrowfully. The only thing he could say was “you are so sick, so I am going to give you some drugs if you take it seriously you can live for about 10 years more”. In a positive voice I said “No!! I am not going to die. I am just 19”. He said “ok then take the drugs seriously”.
He informed me they were going to give me some medications that will take about a month so when is about finishing I should come for more. He gave me his phone number to call if I am experiencing any side effects when taking the drugs. But this is what he had to say at the end of the day’s meeting “make sure you don’t call me at night when I am having good sleep with my girlfriend so that you don’t give me any disease”. I asked myself, “What does this guy take me for?”
I took the drugs for two weeks whilst experiencing very harsh discomfort but I had to endure it alone in my room and did not make my parents aware of this new development. All this while, I didn’t know the main reason why I was taking those harsh drugs.
Immediately I remembered a friend I met some time ago, a medical doctor (3rd doctor), so I called him and told him what was happening to me. Fortunately, he advised I meet him at his residence with the test results and the drugs. I met him and it was so much better than my experience with the other doctor (2nd doctor). He counselled me and gave me all the necessary books and websites to read from. He advised that he’ll help me get all the necessary updates on treatment and life style changes that will be required of me to live a fulfilled life.
He advised I stop the drugs and go for a DNA confirmatory test and later a CD4/8 test that was used to assess the potency of my immune system. It was found out that, although I had the infection, my immune system was extremely better than most people with no infection and so there was no need for some of the drugs. I attributed this to the positivism I have as a person. I rejected to die at the onset and God is helping me. Thanks to my friend (3rd doctor) and the lab, I would have died as a result of the side effects of the drugs.
“So why is it that, the second doctor did not want to tell me all these”, I inquired from my friend and he replied, “some doctors do not understand the mechanism and principles behind the management of HIV infection and AIDS. They cannot tell you so if you do not take care they will hurt you. They are supposed to refer you to a specialist but I don’t know why they don’t”. He referred me to a particular doctor and health facility in Kumasi where I have been receiving my medication.
I thank God that at the end of the day I am still having my life, although that medical doctor wished me dead. I know a lot of people are suffering from similar situations not only HIV patients but people with other diseases.
I am ready to educate the population/youth about HIV infection, the need for regular checkup and ways to avoid stigmatization even from those coming from people who are supposed to comfort us like that doctor and other health workers. I am not ready to be in papers and news, adverts and so on but I can do it through people like you (The writer).
This is a true story of a young lady who is infected with HIV and has suffered from abuse and neglect from a healthcare giver that could have drained her health if she had accepted it as the end of life.
There is seemingly much other negligence on the part of health professionals that have led to the loss of lives or caused some physical disabilities to people. Across the globe, people die of sicknesses which are preventable but for the attitude of the healthcare providers. Many patients who die in health centres actually go there with less severe cases but end up having the situation aggravated. From the negligence of interchanging laboratory results at the laboratories, the prescription of wrong drugs, the delay in setting infusions for hypovolemic patients to leaving surgical instruments in patients after surgery, the healthcare professionals play a major role.
Every life is as important as the other. As a country and an impoverished continent, reports are only heard when the relative of the politician, the chief, or the rich man dies of some negligence. The very majority of negligence cases go unreported and unheard. Mr. Edwin Narter-Olaga, Chief Biomedical Scientist and mentor in the field of transfusion science at the 37Military Hospital, always says, “Every person walking on the surface of mother earth is a potential patient”. Just as healthcare professionals treat patients with frigid unprofessionalism, so would they be treated one day on the same theatre bed.
Every healthcare professional needs to rise above unprofessional conducts and help protect every life. It is believed that with proper professional conduct and practice, closely 360,000 lives could be saved. The healthcare institutions where healthcare malpractices and negligence occur are often seen to be protecting the healthcare professional. They mostly use every available means to ensure the professional goes unpunished. Same is said of various health professional bodies and associations. The safety of every patient is paramount and there is nothing that can be equated to the loss of any life.
The media has a huge role to play in exposing persons who are reported as healthcare dangers. Governments and various health institutions need to fashion out policy guidelines on patient safety to meet international patient safety standards.
We have a charge to keep and we only have today to start keeping it!
