Misery, Misery and Misery,,,,,,Who can we blame!!? from Passive Euthanasia to Ill children for sale!
For a month and a half I have been studying Pediatric medicine in my college (Ain Shams school of medicine) and in this short period I have seen enough misery for a life time, I don't know how do pediatric specialists live in such a miserable cycle without getting mad.
The Egyptian constitution assures everybody's right in a free education and so university study here is very cheap yet the only obstacle is the large number of students.... My class alone consist of 1600 students!
this enormous number of students has to learn and has to study a clinical course and so this enormous number of student needs to attend clinical course in the university teaching Hospital (Al Demerdash Hospital)
despite the trial to organize the number, we end up in groups of 50 to 60 students and this is the least number we can have or else we will have to finish one year of study in a decade if we waited for less numbered and more numerous groups to study the clinical course
so you can imagine the picture of a child on a bed surrounded by 60 persons who are trying to elicit medical signs on his body and his illness
On the other hand, there is another form of misery here
Al Demerdash Hospital ,as any other governmental health care facility, has too limited resources because even the medical services provided by such a facility to Egyptian citizens is of low cost " The Egyptian constitution assures every citizen's right in medical insurance" so most of the drugs and operations are done in a lower cost than its real cost .... or that's what politicians say here in their conferences
So this hospital is for certain socio- economical class and certain citizens of low income .... yet the words here are so gentle if compared to the real thing...
I have seen families I never believed that they exist.... I have seen families living on less that 100 LE a month that means about 20$!!!
I have seen children about to die from nothing except that their mothers can't feed them.... I have seen mothers who can't produce milk after they give birth by a week due to their very bad nourishment.. I have seen patients diseased with Thalassemia who need blood transfusion every month or week according to their disease's progress and still they don't get blood transfusion simply because the second biggest hospital in Egypt doesn't have blood!
in the middle of this misery another very strongly aching picture appears!!!
Families are so in need for money and their children are ill and ofcourse they don't have money to feed them nor to treat their sever conditions! so they come to hospital which doesn't have any resources at all!!! and they are clinical cases for medical student like me who gently Donate or may I say pay for the class!!!! or in another crude words.... pays to see!
the condition developed with time until now it is known that the patient (called here the case) who enters for a teaching examination will be paid from the student a sum of money .... mostly about 20 pounds
and adding to the fact that these poor children are of very poor families and need money, Children turned to be a GOOD..... especially that their diseases are chronic and so they turn to be a source of family income....
I have seen parents who bring their chronically ill children to the hospital just to be examined in a lecture and to get paid for their enlarged livers and tender enlarged spleens and the murmurs in their rheumatic hearts!!!
Even one day a patient with Thalassemia who was only 13 years old was in my class and the doctor explained for longer period than expected so the mother came in and asked for the doctor to finish the lecture, I thought she wanted to give her poor ill child a break from the too many hands that were squeezing his enlarged spleen.... instead she said she wanted her child because he is going in another session in another place!!!!! simply like this.... enlarged spleen and liver became a fortune
Passive Euthanasia!!!
and of course in Egypt the whole misery must be fortified as usual with a subject of debate and argument which always includes discussion of the relationship between religion and science because we are taught by SAINTS (sarcastic)
I have seen a child with Hydrochepalus ... he was in a very bad condition:
- he was 8 years old (says his mother) yet his body is just like the body of a one year old infant
- his head was bigger than his body .... the biggest head I have ever seen in my life measuring more than 60cm in diameter!!!
- all of his body muscles are FIBROSED
- all of his joints are defotmed
- can't see, listen or talk
- in short, a breathing apathetic corps , this is the most gentle words to describe how he is
all of this didn't help that poor thing from being examined in our class for money.....
and here comes the question.... Passive euthanasia!!!! what would we do to him!!? should we deliver him from his miserable life!! or what!!?
out doctor explained that there is a shunt operation ( when we use a tupe inside the body extending from the brain to the peritoneal cavity to Drain the CSF.... so the child will live better " generally speaking... not the case I wrpte about before")
this operation is so easy that a starting trainer in neurosurgery can make it.... and these interns start their training very interested in making surgeries so they do the operations for a while then they neglect such operations because they are so boring and easy (to their opinion after remaining in training for a while)
so we come to 2 points of sever debate!!
1- when ever in medicine's history was Doctor's mood an indication of surgery!!!!!?
2- Why every should we let those interns do this operation? do children need it?!
unfortunately the surgery is just Palliative for most of cases here in Egypt (palliative means relieving of undesirable symptoms in a terminally ill patient) and it is never of curative value as even non physicians know that the nervous tissue destroyed by pressure is never to regrow.
so yes it reliefs some symptoms but it prolongs life .... it VERY PROLONGS LIFE FOR YEARS
so for an intern to feel important.... he is elongating the life of someone who is already gonna die and increasing not only his misery but also the misery of his own family as such a patient isn't even able to walk.... and in sever forms, can't talk or hear or see.... so he remains a very tough test to his family's faith and he totally depends on someone or else he will die
so why do we prolong this misery?! why do we want to buy such a poor thing more days on earth to suffer in them, isn't it enough already what he is going throw!! why don't we let him go to the place where he can find peace!
some Doctors, (who belong to the Muslim brotherhood) say.... in religion, no human being is allowed to judge if someone should die or not so they do the operation!!!!! OMG
what are they doing .... what religion is that that orders prolongation of suffering.... this is totally unfair to the child himself and to the whole family.... this is vile
and so Misery continues with nonsense arguments .... our Hospital is a place full with pain and suffering and long stories that could tear Charles Dickens's heart into two.
Who can we blame!!!?
I am a big shit of a liar if I said that I know the answer to that question!!!!
Do we blame the medical system?! but for what.... for trying to cover all the population of a third world country!! people in USA are dying in the streets because the don't find money to treat their illnesses! while in Egypt the constitution is assuring that every citizen must be covered by the insurance's umbrella.
Shall we blame the parents???
For what? for being victims? for being ignorant? for not finding an opportunity to learn? for the very high rate of consanguintiy? or for being poor and unable to eat?
well I blame them for consanguinty but they reply saying, we didn't know, we are illiterate so I reply saying and this is even a bigger crime but indeed some of them don't have the least chance.... even I the doctor is a son of an illiterate parents because they didn't have any chance!
then we must blame them for making their ill children a good for trade?
I swear that poverty level in those people is unimaginable... I have seen with my own eyes a female infant who is about to die of malnutrition as her mother used to feed her an amount of Formula Milk that should be fed in a 3 days duration in 9 days!
I was like mad, what a crime is that.... she is really a criminal but when I knew that her breast milk stopped after one week because she couldn't find what to eat......
I won't continue this statement... I'll just say No comment..... you comment if you can!
So we blame the students who stand in rows in large numbers causing these little angels psychological damage and contribute to their suffering?
for what? For learning!!! for trying to elicit signs they will later need to relief someone's suffering!!! how is that possible
Shall we blame religion for the Ignorance of its followers..... or shall we become religious and blame those who go for passive euthanasia as they are just killers and unbelievers? I don't know,
All I know is what I have seen and felt... and I swear to god if I was the responsible doctor for that child with Hydrocephalus I would have killed him and slept my night with a very relieved conscious!!! any human being would feel the same believe me knowing is nothing compared to seeing!
who can we blame??? I don't know....... Do you know any one? please tell me and I would do more than just blaming him
my teaching Doctor once said in comment about how miserable things are here in Egypt," If western world's doctors are taught very expensively,, You are taught very toughly"
The Egyptian constitution assures everybody's right in a free education and so university study here is very cheap yet the only obstacle is the large number of students.... My class alone consist of 1600 students!
this enormous number of students has to learn and has to study a clinical course and so this enormous number of student needs to attend clinical course in the university teaching Hospital (Al Demerdash Hospital)
despite the trial to organize the number, we end up in groups of 50 to 60 students and this is the least number we can have or else we will have to finish one year of study in a decade if we waited for less numbered and more numerous groups to study the clinical course
so you can imagine the picture of a child on a bed surrounded by 60 persons who are trying to elicit medical signs on his body and his illness
On the other hand, there is another form of misery here
Al Demerdash Hospital ,as any other governmental health care facility, has too limited resources because even the medical services provided by such a facility to Egyptian citizens is of low cost " The Egyptian constitution assures every citizen's right in medical insurance" so most of the drugs and operations are done in a lower cost than its real cost .... or that's what politicians say here in their conferences
So this hospital is for certain socio- economical class and certain citizens of low income .... yet the words here are so gentle if compared to the real thing...
I have seen families I never believed that they exist.... I have seen families living on less that 100 LE a month that means about 20$!!!
I have seen children about to die from nothing except that their mothers can't feed them.... I have seen mothers who can't produce milk after they give birth by a week due to their very bad nourishment.. I have seen patients diseased with Thalassemia who need blood transfusion every month or week according to their disease's progress and still they don't get blood transfusion simply because the second biggest hospital in Egypt doesn't have blood!
in the middle of this misery another very strongly aching picture appears!!!
Families are so in need for money and their children are ill and ofcourse they don't have money to feed them nor to treat their sever conditions! so they come to hospital which doesn't have any resources at all!!! and they are clinical cases for medical student like me who gently Donate or may I say pay for the class!!!! or in another crude words.... pays to see!
the condition developed with time until now it is known that the patient (called here the case) who enters for a teaching examination will be paid from the student a sum of money .... mostly about 20 pounds
and adding to the fact that these poor children are of very poor families and need money, Children turned to be a GOOD..... especially that their diseases are chronic and so they turn to be a source of family income....
I have seen parents who bring their chronically ill children to the hospital just to be examined in a lecture and to get paid for their enlarged livers and tender enlarged spleens and the murmurs in their rheumatic hearts!!!
Even one day a patient with Thalassemia who was only 13 years old was in my class and the doctor explained for longer period than expected so the mother came in and asked for the doctor to finish the lecture, I thought she wanted to give her poor ill child a break from the too many hands that were squeezing his enlarged spleen.... instead she said she wanted her child because he is going in another session in another place!!!!! simply like this.... enlarged spleen and liver became a fortune
Passive Euthanasia!!!
and of course in Egypt the whole misery must be fortified as usual with a subject of debate and argument which always includes discussion of the relationship between religion and science because we are taught by SAINTS (sarcastic)
I have seen a child with Hydrochepalus ... he was in a very bad condition:
- he was 8 years old (says his mother) yet his body is just like the body of a one year old infant
- his head was bigger than his body .... the biggest head I have ever seen in my life measuring more than 60cm in diameter!!!
- all of his body muscles are FIBROSED
- all of his joints are defotmed
- can't see, listen or talk
- in short, a breathing apathetic corps , this is the most gentle words to describe how he is
all of this didn't help that poor thing from being examined in our class for money.....
and here comes the question.... Passive euthanasia!!!! what would we do to him!!? should we deliver him from his miserable life!! or what!!?
out doctor explained that there is a shunt operation ( when we use a tupe inside the body extending from the brain to the peritoneal cavity to Drain the CSF.... so the child will live better " generally speaking... not the case I wrpte about before")
this operation is so easy that a starting trainer in neurosurgery can make it.... and these interns start their training very interested in making surgeries so they do the operations for a while then they neglect such operations because they are so boring and easy (to their opinion after remaining in training for a while)
so we come to 2 points of sever debate!!
1- when ever in medicine's history was Doctor's mood an indication of surgery!!!!!?
2- Why every should we let those interns do this operation? do children need it?!
unfortunately the surgery is just Palliative for most of cases here in Egypt (palliative means relieving of undesirable symptoms in a terminally ill patient) and it is never of curative value as even non physicians know that the nervous tissue destroyed by pressure is never to regrow.
so yes it reliefs some symptoms but it prolongs life .... it VERY PROLONGS LIFE FOR YEARS
so for an intern to feel important.... he is elongating the life of someone who is already gonna die and increasing not only his misery but also the misery of his own family as such a patient isn't even able to walk.... and in sever forms, can't talk or hear or see.... so he remains a very tough test to his family's faith and he totally depends on someone or else he will die
so why do we prolong this misery?! why do we want to buy such a poor thing more days on earth to suffer in them, isn't it enough already what he is going throw!! why don't we let him go to the place where he can find peace!
some Doctors, (who belong to the Muslim brotherhood) say.... in religion, no human being is allowed to judge if someone should die or not so they do the operation!!!!! OMG
what are they doing .... what religion is that that orders prolongation of suffering.... this is totally unfair to the child himself and to the whole family.... this is vile
and so Misery continues with nonsense arguments .... our Hospital is a place full with pain and suffering and long stories that could tear Charles Dickens's heart into two.
Who can we blame!!!?
I am a big shit of a liar if I said that I know the answer to that question!!!!
Do we blame the medical system?! but for what.... for trying to cover all the population of a third world country!! people in USA are dying in the streets because the don't find money to treat their illnesses! while in Egypt the constitution is assuring that every citizen must be covered by the insurance's umbrella.
Shall we blame the parents???
For what? for being victims? for being ignorant? for not finding an opportunity to learn? for the very high rate of consanguintiy? or for being poor and unable to eat?
well I blame them for consanguinty but they reply saying, we didn't know, we are illiterate so I reply saying and this is even a bigger crime but indeed some of them don't have the least chance.... even I the doctor is a son of an illiterate parents because they didn't have any chance!
then we must blame them for making their ill children a good for trade?
I swear that poverty level in those people is unimaginable... I have seen with my own eyes a female infant who is about to die of malnutrition as her mother used to feed her an amount of Formula Milk that should be fed in a 3 days duration in 9 days!
I was like mad, what a crime is that.... she is really a criminal but when I knew that her breast milk stopped after one week because she couldn't find what to eat......
I won't continue this statement... I'll just say No comment..... you comment if you can!
So we blame the students who stand in rows in large numbers causing these little angels psychological damage and contribute to their suffering?
for what? For learning!!! for trying to elicit signs they will later need to relief someone's suffering!!! how is that possible
Shall we blame religion for the Ignorance of its followers..... or shall we become religious and blame those who go for passive euthanasia as they are just killers and unbelievers? I don't know,
All I know is what I have seen and felt... and I swear to god if I was the responsible doctor for that child with Hydrocephalus I would have killed him and slept my night with a very relieved conscious!!! any human being would feel the same believe me knowing is nothing compared to seeing!
who can we blame??? I don't know....... Do you know any one? please tell me and I would do more than just blaming him
my teaching Doctor once said in comment about how miserable things are here in Egypt," If western world's doctors are taught very expensively,, You are taught very toughly"