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The journalist tells the tragic story: My friend lost her 9-day-old child because there was no equipment for treatment at QSUT

2023-10-07 12:32:09Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

The journalist tells the tragic story: My friend lost her 9-day-old child

By: Klodiana Lala

I wouldn't have told this story if I thought it only belonged to a couple of people I know personally. It is not a story about their pain, but about all our pain, as we see the citizens who wander to the doors of hospitals, but buy their medicines in pharmacies or privately.

It is also a story of how doctors raise their hands and guide families full of problems to find solutions in hospitals abroad. It is a story of how "free health" is simply a "reality" that only the government officials believe, but not the citizens who have to face the lack of many things, including the impossibility of clarifying what they should do.

The story I want to bring you today was told to me by a father who is still recovering from the loss of his 9-day-old son and who is struggling to find justice for what happened to him.
....
I have known the approach more than 15 years ago. We worked for the same company. He was a silent boy, ubiquitous, dedicated to work. He never complained. Also, I never once heard him speak against a colleague or deal with other people's business. About 6 years ago, he left for another job. Because my daily life is often busy and hectic, between work and two small children, I don't manage to sit down with many of those I would like to talk to and be in a cafe even for a few minutes.

But Afrim's story made me stop for a long time. I learned from mutual friends that he was married and had a daughter. By chance, I learned that he had a friend of mine from the faculty as his wife. A smiling girl once, an excellent student, today I am a dedicated official and also a devoted mother. And when Afrimi persistently asked me to meet, I felt that he wanted to discuss an important matter.

With that calmness of his, Afrimi asked me at length about his family and work. At one point he said to me: "I am going through a terrible moment in my life. A few days ago I had an accident. The 9-day-old boy died in the hospital." Naturally, my eyes filled with tears. "I have turned to the prosecutor's office, because my son died after not receiving proper medical care."

He told me the story from start to finish. "The boy was born well. Healthy (shows me the picture, a baby with black hair). You have no idea what joy we experienced. The bride was fine too. The problems started 4 hours after he was born. It started to darken on the lips," he told me.

He had explained these details to the prosecution. "I, the complainant, sent my wife Obstetrics and Gynecology "Queen Geraldine" for a planned delivery by operation on August 13, 2023. At 11.35 the child was born. The birth went very well and the baby was born weighing less than 3950 kg. Around 20:00 it was found that the child has problems with oxygenation. The child was sent to the intensive care unit where further examinations were performed", reports Afrimi, among other things.

This is where the ordeal of suffering begins for him.

"The doctors told us that there was a problem in the heart", he says. But since the maternity hospital had neither specialist doctors nor the relevant equipment, it was planned to carry out the check on August 14 near the Pediatric Hospital at QSUT", he says.

After the check-up, the doctors informed Afrimi that an immediate coronary surgical intervention was needed to expand the veins in order to facilitate the circulation of oxygen in the child's body.

"The intervention had to be done as urgently as possible. Every second that passed could prove fatal for the boy's life. The doctor told me that in our hospital we do not have the opportunity to do this type of intervention because we do not have an operating room for children, nor specialist doctors, nor the necessary medicines to treat this case", he further confesses.

I was shocked - says Afrimi - I had to do my best to save my son.

"I had to find the medicine that was missing in the hospital. It was about the drug Alprostoglandin. Even the maternity doctors told me that they did not have this medicine. It could only be found in the American hospital. I looked for it all over the pharmacy and in the end I went to American 3. The drug cost 20,700 Lek per ampoule. I only had 300 thousand old lek. I took only one vial and left, I would have given the boy a few hours of life. I had to find the other lek", Afrimi further confesses.

They told me to send it to Italy - he says sadly - but I don't have the financial means. "I do honest work. I support the family. I have been paying taxes for 30 years", he explains.

Due to the lack of coronary intervention and non-treatment with drugs, the boy's face begins to darken.
"As soon as I showed you the medicine, I provided it privately and the boy started to get better. The doctors told me: see any possibility to send him outside, because I could reach it. The boy was treated with medicine until August 22. Through some of my acquaintances, I was informed that in Albania there was a doctor specialized in such interventions. It was the doctor Altin Veshti. I talked to him. He undertook the intervention, but he told me that not even Cardio-Surgery has the right tools and operating rooms for surgical interventions for the baby. We transferred the boy to the pediatric emergency room. Even there I sent the medicine myself because they didn't have it. Since there was no operating room for babies, we decided to transfer the boy for surgery to the cardiology hospital for adults", Afrimi explains further.

He says that the transfer to Cardiology presented great risks, as there was a risk that the boy would get operative infections from the adult room. "I had no other choice. I put the boy into surgery. It lasted 5 hours. The doctor told us that the intervention was successful and that we should wait to see the progress. The next day, the checkup was done and it seemed as if everything was going well, but a problem started with urination," he says.

The doctor told us that he must urinate so that the child's body can be cleaned - Afrimi says - but the doctors told us that the hospital did not have the right equipment to discharge the kidneys. "This made his condition worse and the boy was always getting worse. It started to swell and the legs started to turn black. This situation lasted until 05.00 am on August 25. The boy passed away", he recalls through tears. For Afrim, the boy died because he did not receive proper treatment.
"But I am a regular citizen and I pay taxes", he emphasizes.

"My wife and I have been paying social and health insurance contributions for almost 30 years. We have contributed all these years to the state budget, so that when we needed it, as we did in this case, the Albanian state through the health service offered us the right medical service and did not let our son die with the argument that we do not have the right means for treat it. "Our son was diagnosed with a health problem, transposition of the great vessels of the heart, which was not an incurable disease, but the health problem required urgent treatment," the lawsuit states.

"My son is not coming back, but I want justice. And I cannot remain silent, because other children may die. That's why I turned to the prosecutor's office", he ends the conversation.

As we get up, we call the waiter to pay for the coffee. We had taken a coffee and a water. "I'm giving you the boy's coffee. He is no longer alive, but he could live if he had health care," he says as his eyes tear up. And with him, I can't stand either without tears or without describing this story.


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