“They are letting me die, disrespecting my right to life,” says Pedro (protected name), who has been waiting for a kidney transplant since July 2021, after being diagnosed with chronic kidney failure, for which he must undergo three dialysis sessions week.
He, 42 years old, has tried to access surgery through the public health network. As a patient at the Hospital de Especialidades Abel Gilbert Pontón, in the south of Guayaquil, he started the process for surgery, but everything has been uphill, he says.
Pedro has been a carrier of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since 2017, and his current condition is undetectable, which means that there is not enough virus in his bloodstream to spread the disease. Hence, he demands kidney transplant surgery, but is only stonewalled.
Faced with the refusal to intervene in three hospitals in the country, Pedro filed a lawsuit this month against the State, represented by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), for the violation of constitutional rights. His lawyer is José Flores Sánchez.
“It is an interesting case in terms of the violation of rights by the Ecuadorian State. He has rights established in the Constitution: the right to life, health and dignity. In this sense, we demand a protection action. It is a humanitarian issue, since we could all be in this situation,” says Flores.
The answer as to whether or not the protection action is granted will be known orally at this same hearing on Friday, October 28.
“My only goal is to get the long-awaited transplant and get my life back,” emphasizes the affected person.
The resolution for this case is scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, October 28.
“In April 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, my health in terms of my kidney problem deteriorated to such an extent that I reached stage five, which is hemodialysis. By my own means, I sought to start the kidney transplant process under the guidance and advice of the hospital social worker Abel Gilbert”.
Initially he was referred to Luis Vernaza Hospital of the Guayaquil Charity Boardwhere the pre-transplant process (approval by specialists prior to surgery) was successful, indicates the person affected.
“I successfully completed the first stage of pre-kidney transplantation, appointments and medical tests with specialists in nutrition, gastroenterology, psychology, imaging, cardiology, urology, and laboratory, for approval of transplant surgery upon admission,” he indicates.
However, after several months of the process, Pedro was summoned in October 2021 by the nephrologist at the Vernaza hospital assigned to his case, who informed him that was left out of the process, since patients with HIV are not accepted for this type of surgery, because there are no protocols to follow when operating on people with this condition, according to the patient.
“I sought help from social entities, with my clinical history in hand, which led to a publication on a web portal, which caused the annoyance of a doctor member of the Transplant Unit of the Luis Vernaza hospital, who summoned me to a new meeting with the aim of claiming me”, says Pedro.
After this first refusal, he went to the National Institute for Organ, Tissue and Cell Donation and Transplantation (Indot), an entity attached to the MSP, in charge of regulating and coordinating transplants at the national level, with the aim of finding a quick solution to his case.
Through this body, he was referred to a hospital in Cuenca, which also initially agreed to perform the transplant, but later refused. The third and last referral —for now— went to Teodoro Maldonado Carbo, of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security, where the surgery did not materialize either.
“The Health Zonal Coordination 8 it took more than three months to give the respective referral, despite the fact that I made a pilgrimage several times in person to receive a positive response, without success. In addition to the fact that the Vernaza hospital did not send in time, in writing, the document that terminates the agreement for my referral for a transplant with that entity”, says Pedro.
When he already had the complete documents, the Teodoro Maldonado Carbo did not accept the entry of the documentation under the same argument that there were no transplant surgery protocols for patients with HIV, adds the patient.
The last option is a referral abroad, where they do carry out these transplants in people with HIV, but the process does not advance. “While my life is ending, disrespecting my constitutional right to life, health and non-discrimination for being a patient with HIV”, says Pedro.
Given the complaint filed in the Judiciary, Pedro now fears that the Abel Gilbert hospital will no longer provide him with retroviral medications for HIV control, which keep him undetectable, and that referral to a clinic where hemodialysis is done will be suspended.
His lawyer Flores expects a favorable response at the hearing on October 28: “We hope that everything is dictated in accordance with the law, without any pressure from the authority of political power, because it is a fair act, since it is obviously an act of justice to give to someone what corresponds to him, and in law, because the Ecuadorian State has violated it. That’s the truth”. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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