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Cancer patient who is not called… And the ambulance that will never arrive

I tell you the story of two women, Silvia Luna and Marytha Esser, both with serious physical problems that require timely medical follow-up, which in the case of this one, who has breast cancer, is delayed, according to what she says, due to the priority is giving to those infected by COVID-19. Silvia is another story

“…and they haven’t called me”

“If at the beginning the check-ups were done within the agreed period –says Marytha–, from the appearance of the pandemic onwards, the health priority is for those affected by COVID-19, leaving the rest of us in the queue. To me… I don’t even remember the last time! Last August I went to Son Llàtzer, they looked at me and asked how I was feeling. I told them it was bad, that I had lost a lot of weight because I had lost the desire to eat. I had lost so much weight –he specifies–, that I had gone to the smallest size of all… If even the little padding that I had at the height of my navel has gone! –Marytha, who we noticed very upset, tries to calm down–. At that visit they tell me to have a mammogram, giving me a date for November. But November comes and they don’t call me. Not even in December. Not so far in January. That’s why I’m going to ask for another appointment so they can explain to me what’s going on… Because I feel bad, with little strength, which is why I’ve had to reduce my weekly work to 20 hours. Yes, I only work, sleep and hardly eat, and… Why don’t they call me…? I think that COVID-19 is in charge now, so the other diseases can wait… I have also been vaccinated without anyone telling me to get vaccinated, nor has anyone advised me if it is good to be vaccinated in my state… I have been vaccinated because throughout the day they are telling us, and repeating, that we have to be vaccinated, but nothing more… I don’t know -now a little calmer, with a lost look, as if thinking out loud, she continues- but I It gives the impression that if you’re sick, but if it’s not COVID-19, you’re not interested… I think it’s as if we had too many. And more with how expensive certain treatments are. Because if not, let them explain it to me… Because until now, no coordination in terms of check-ups, no explanations about whether it is convenient for a cancer patient to be vaccinated, and if so, which vaccine is the best… Nothing. Nor do they call for check-ups, or to do the mammograms that they tell you they are going to do… So I am going to approach my PAC to ask».

Marytha, sick with cancer, believes that if she has not had check-ups since June, it is because COVID-19 has priority.

Go to Son Llàtzer

On Tuesday, January 18, Marytha went to her PAC, showed the doctor who treated her the paper where in June 2021 she is told that she will be notified for an ultrasound and mammogram within a month, and asks that what was the reason for such a delay? The doctor tells her that she has to go to the Son Llàtzer Hospital, so that the oncologist can see her. She insists that in Son Llàtzer, in June, they told her that in less than a month she would be notified to have an ultrasound and mammogram, also reminding her, “that it is January, and they have not notified me yet.” The doctor insists that the PAC cannot do anything. Marytha leaves the establishment crying. «What can I do, if on top of that, every day that passes, I feel worse…? Why don’t they attend to me…? That makes me suspect that if we are not COVID-19 we don’t matter, which is an injustice… Because I’m bad, getting worse and worse…».

Two open fronts

Silvia Luna is a singer, whose career was cut short by leukemia… She did not abandon it, because when she has the opportunity she goes on stage, which in recent times is not easy due to the sanitary measures that have had to be taken due to COVID-19 . Today he is in a wheelchair for life. As he could, he tried to overcome that trance. But, with the passage of time, it has gotten worse. Apart from the fact that he cannot walk, now the pain has spread to his arm and back, which has had repercussions throughout his body, preventing him from being able to function as before, “because to do many things they have to help me, almost like at the beginning, for which my dependence on other people, and above all on my parents, is total”, he assures.

However, and despite his condition, “they don’t want to give me dependency level three. They tell me that with what I have, the two, which they gave me when I could manage much better than now, and that was after spending some time without receiving any income, is enough. However, I see that other people who are better off than me have grade three. And because I think it’s fair that they give it to me, that’s why I keep fighting. But there is no way, since they insist that the one that corresponds to me is number two, which was, I repeat, the one they granted me when my mobility was much higher than what I have today.

“What I do…?”

Apart from this front, Silvia has another open. As her health condition due to her spinal cord injury has worsened, she has to go to rehab, for which she needs an ambulance to pick her up at home, take her to the rehab center and bring her back home. We are talking about an essential service for her, but that does not exist. “The ambulance only comes to pick you up for visits,” he tells us, “so if I have to go to rehab, I have to manage myself. But since I can’t, because physically and mentally I’m very bad, getting worse, many days my father has had to accompany me, which means that I depend on him for that. In other words, if I have to go to rehabilitation on the days that correspond to me, I have to depend on him. But it is that my father works, and if he accompanies me, he stops working, which is why he is losing jobs! It seems very good to me that there is an ambulance service to go to consultations, but why isn’t there one to go to rehabilitation? What I do…? What do other people who are like me…? Because I need to rehabilitate myself –he insists–, it’s enough, if not, see how bad I’m getting… What do I have to do…? Make my dad give me a ride every time, which will put him out of a job? Someone tell me what I can do…». We think that it is the Conselleria who should respond. Because, we suppose, like Silvia’s, there must be other similar cases.

Composing songs

On top of that, due to the pandemic, but above all due to the physical and mental setback that he is noticing, he does not work as before, for which his income is rather very little. In the meantime, keep waiting for better times to come. How? “Composing songs, like the one by Clown, which I composed with Sebastián Heredia –he says–, which is now playing on YouTube and Facebook, and we are trying to make it play on digital platforms as well. I am also making songs with Edu Moras». In the farewell, Silvia Luna, after publicly thanking “the staff of Sant Joan de Déu for how well they are treating us people who suffer from the same as me”, makes us a recommendation: “That we remember that there is a lack of marrow and blood, for which the banks of both are being emptied. These are hard times of the pandemic, but let’s not forget that need, because if you donate blood and bone marrow you are giving life, or saving the life of someone who is losing it.

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